Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Check & Mate, by Ali Hazelwood
Saturday, January 27, 2024
Briar Girls, by Rebecca Kim Wells
Miranda promises that she can help Lena break the curse in exchange for Lena's help in helping bring down an evil tyrant who holds sway over the city of Gather deep within the Silence -- a feat which requires killing or setting free a sleeping princess protected within a castle surrounded by impenetrable briars. But it quickly becomes apparent that Miranda is not telling the truth and, as various adventures unfold, she's far from unique. Just about everyone in this story has hidden agendas and is hiding something. Lena has to figure out who to trust and often must take temporary advantage from unreliable allies.
Featuring dragons, wolves, blood magic, curses, prophecy, and the rather enigmatic Silence itself, Briar Girls is a densely written, fast-paced fantasy adventure. It sacrifices a great deal of character development in the process. For while we get a chance in the beginning to meet Lena and to develop her rebellious and largely disobedient personality, most of the other characters are underdeveloped. A sexual encounter between Lena and a boy named Alaric is sweet but strangely clinical. A professed love with Miranda goes largely unconsummated, but does feature some brief moments of jealousy that suggest at feelings that are never quite allowed to develop. As far as side characters, most of all I enjoyed the dragons, who were delightfully sadistic (as well as being snobby epicureans). A story like this lives and dies on the action and the world building, both of which are stellar so any flaws in the characters can be overlooked safely.
Thursday, January 25, 2024
All That's Left in the World, by Erik J. Brown
But before any sort of romance can develop, the two boys are forced to flee when more hostile invaders arrive on the scene. The two of them set out roughly following Andrew's original plan, heading south to the remains of Washington DC. And when things don't work out, they then go down to Florida, encountering both friend and foe. Along the way, they find vivid examples of how different choices have fared for the varied survivors.
While the writing is decent and the characters well-developed, the author really struggled to come up with a story. The bulk of the novel is just a series of encounters with strangers stringed together. Some go well and some go poorly, but they don't add up to a story and do get very repetitive. The overall goal of the trip, which might have formed a true plot, keeps shifting. It feels like Brown just fell in love with the idea of a post-apocalyptic survival story between two (maybe) gay boys. However, even the romance is not really consummated and notably lacking in any heat.
In the author's notes at the end, Brown attests that the story's similarities to recent events is largely coincidental. It was originally drafted in 2015 (and thus predates COVID) but it's hard not to draw parallels.
Saturday, January 20, 2024
Love & Resistance, by Kara H. L. Chen
None of this plays out realistically, but it's a whole lot of fun and all in service to a good cause: addressing bullying and racism. At first, Olivia and her friends are all focused on getting revenge and striking back, but as those strategies largely fail, they make the important realization that the best way to confront power is to render it irrelevant. A society based on fear and conformity can't survive when its values are ignored. Chen never draws the analogy out to anything greater than Olivia's school, but the novel's epilogue all but connects the dots to a challenge to our larger society.
The character building seemed weak to me and the love stories lacked much fizz, but I enjoyed the story --in the beginning because it was fun and then in the end because it had a lot of useful advice for young people who find themselves too wrapped up in social media and trying to please everyone around them.
Sunday, January 14, 2024
Fault Lines, by Nora Shalaway Carpenter
Dex and his mother have recently moved to the area so Mom can work on the pipelines. Drowning in medical bills, this is the first real job that she's had in years. So while Dex isn't entirely unfamiliar with the environmental damage that fracking causes, his family has different priorities. In any case, what happens here is of little concern to him. He's signing up for the Army. His mother doesn't approve, but he knows that serving will get him out of his mom's hair, give him an income, and send him to college.
The two of them, in sum, should have no reason to connect. Viv hates what Dex's mom does for a living. Dex, with his eyes set on the Army, has already checked out. But as two outsiders, they become attracted to each other and eventually form an alliance to stand up for themselves and their beliefs.
Despite the attention paid to the environmental devastation being caused in West Virginia (and the author's loving depictions of the natural beauty of Appalachia), this is not solely a screed for environmentalism. Rather, it is a tale of two young people emerging from their shells. Viv and Dex both come from families dealing with loss (Viv's mother is dead and Dex's father is a struggling alcoholic whom was kicked out of the house). As a result, their single-parent households fail to provide much of a role model for moving forward. That they each do so is ultimately quite satisfying.
Thursday, January 11, 2024
Every Bird a Prince, by Jenn Reese
Seeming unrelated, things start to change for her when she rescues a bird in the woods. He's a prince and he wants to reward her for her bravery and kindness by making Eren his champion. What does a bird's champion do? They fight "frost fangs" -- wolf-like creatures that feed on people's insecurities.
It turns out that these frost fangs have been waging a war and the birds have been the sole defense, but their strength is diminishing. If no one does anything, the frost fangs will take over and humanity will be lost to its insecurities. This being a middle reader, everything will fall on Erne, Alex, and a few of their friends to save the world (or at least their school). The showdown takes place at the school dance, where Eren must first overcome her own fears and anxieties and then convince her peers to do likewise.
I found it a clever fantasy novel with some heavy-handed messages about building up self-confidence and learning to turn off voices of doubt in your head. There's some messy stuff about whether Erne is "aromantic" or simply not ready for romantic relationships -- given her age, in my opinion, the difference is unimportant and distracting. The far stronger message is that everyone has doubts about themselves, but it is important to not let them paralyze you from living your life and standing up for what you believe in. It's not a new message, but the packaging here is quite clever and the story is memorable.
Sunday, January 07, 2024
Hot Dutch Daydream, by Kristy Boyce
Sage has landed herself an ultra prestigious internship with Dr. Reese, a leading oncologist, at her research laboratory in Amsterdam. She'll have to take care of the doctor's three-year-old son during the day and do a lot of drudge work, but in exchange, she'll get to attend a conference in Berlin and make a lot of connections. There's just one catch: she must stay away from Dr. Reese's gorgeous eighteen year-old son, Ryland. You already know how this is going to turn out....
Ryland and Sage spend the summer going from hatred to reluctant coworkers to secret lovers (although the relationship doesn't move much further along than furtive kissing). Along the way, they visit all of the sites, including two of my favorites: the Zoo and the Kattenkabinet (Amsterdam's museum of feline art). There's tastings of all the local culinary favorites and even a (slightly ridiculous) drop in at a coffee shop.
On the whole, there was nothing particularly objectionable about the book, but it felt like a pale imitation of its predecessor. Sage is not nearly as interesting as Emmie from that book, lacking the compelling backstory which made rooting for Emmie more rewarding. Sage, in contrast, is a grind with a serious work-life imbalance. If you haven't read Hot British Boyfriend, start there and then pick this one up afterwards and see if you agree that we might have been better off with a one-and-done.
Wednesday, January 03, 2024
A Far Wilder Magic, by Allison Saft
Saturday, December 30, 2023
Larkin on the Shore, by Jean Mills
While well-written, the pacing is slow and the themes could easily have been further developed. We're never exactly clear what happened to Larkin back at her school, Meanwhile, the mother and her story doesn't really move beyond a brief recollection (and an even briefer dialog). Mills does a fine job in showing us how sad and depressed Larkin is and in capturing her panic attacks. However, lacking the context deprives us of much of the punch or the necessary reader empathy to make it be something dramatic.
Thursday, December 28, 2023
100 Days of Sunlight, by Abbie Emmons
Weston is a double amputee -- the result of an untreated infection from an accident three years prior. Through flashbacks, he describes the process he went through to come back, working through not only his disability but also his anger at his fate -- knowledge that he applies to Tessa's situation. However, he has an advantage: she doesn't know he's an amputee.
Over the next hundred days, through patience and stubborn persistence, Weston works through Tessa's barriers and gradually helps her deal with her blindness. However, he knows that one day soon she'll get her sight back and then she'll see him as he truly is. And he fears what she will do.
A terribly sweet and utterly gratuitous romance. Weston is pretty much the Perfect Boy -- kind, considerate, generous, with just a small amount of naughtiness (he gets into fist fights). He adores Tessa. And of course, he has nothing better to do than dote on her for three months. Needless to say, we know that his silly fears about her hating him when she sees his disability are nothing big, so we're flipping the pages waiting for that swoon-worthy happily-ever-after kiss. And this is the kind of story that delivers just what the readers want. In sum, pure unadulterated literary junk food. Grab a pint of Ben & Jerry's or a package of Oreos and dig in!
Monday, December 25, 2023
The Land of Neverendings, by Kate Saunders
Amidst that longing for a lost toy and perhaps inspired by being cast in the lead for a school production of Alice, Emily stumbles across a portal to the world of Smockeroon, the land of the toys. There she is presented with the entrancing idea that she could reconnect with Bluey (and perhaps even her own sister). However, behind this opening between the "hardworld" and Smockeroon lies a sinister force -- a giant toad who wants to import all of the sadness of Emily's world into the world of toys, in an attempt to destroy the joy and happiness of that latter place.
In a very British way, this riff on CS Lewis and Lewis Carroll (with a unacknowledged debt to Pixar) explores the grieving of a child told through our relationship with toys and play. The story is a bit chaotic and difficult to follow and the deeper themes will definitely fly over the heads of young readers. Still, it's a clever book and it's nice to read something so sweet and innocent. Entirely suitable for all ages.
Saturday, December 23, 2023
If He Had Been With Me, by Laura Nowlin
Autumn and Finn grew up together as best friends and next door neighbors. Their mothers always assumed that they would end up together as a couple. But by the time high school begins, they aren't really talking to each other anymore. Autumn has Jamie and Finn has found Sylvie. They both couldn't be happier in their respective relationships. But somehow all that shared history bring Autumn and Finn back to each in their times of need.
Mapped out over four years of high school, Nowlin's lushly written novel captures the trials and drama of Autumn and Finn's development and their largely inevitable coming together. While beautifully written, covering such a long expanse of time leads to a lot of jumping around and senior year is largely a blur in this retelling. Throughout, I struggled to understand where the story was really going. Yes, there are plenty of indications along the way that Finn and Autumn really ought to be together, but the book is full of so much more than that (subplots ranging from a pregnancy to a divorce to drugs to sexual abuse) that I wondered what the point of the book really was. It's all very pretty and well-told, but does one need to cram every single good idea into the same book?
All that is a minor complaint compared to my thoughts on the book's shocking ending. I won't spoil the story for others, but I feel very strongly that Nowlin basically ruined the story for me in the last ten pages with an unnecessary, pointless, and completely out-of-the-blue plot twist that lacks any foundation. I'd suggest stopping on page 381 because I'm now left seriously wondering why I read those first 380 pages.
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs, by Pam Munoz Ryan
The gift comes at an awkward moment, when the king is absent and an attack from a neighboring kingdom threatens her home. While she is only a child, as soon as the attacking king learns of her new powers, he wants to harness them for himself and he tries to detain her. To prevent that from happening, Solimar flees the castle and tries to find her father so she can warn him. She hopes that he'll find allies, beat back the attackers, and also save the butterflies. An epic voyage through uncharted waterways awaits!
Like all of Ryan's other novels, this one has a distinctly Hispanic flavor and the setting is vaguely Mexican. That is manifested mostly through terms, titles, and foods, but also the context (the attack occurs while Solimar is planning her quince). I always enjoy this stylistic twist in her books although in this case it would have been nice to have a glossary at the back to help with less familiar terms.
More problematically, I didn't enjoy the story very much. Unlike many of her novels, the stress here is on action. Character development gets a very short shrift. Solimar is supposed to go through a great transformation in her ordeal, but I didn't understand what it really was and I actually didn't care much either. As for the action, it isn't well told, often requiring reading and re-reading passages to understand what is happening. There's a lot going on and never a dull moment but it is hard to follow. Definitely not in the same class as Ryan's Esperanza Rising or Becoming Naomi Leon.
Sunday, December 17, 2023
Breda's Island, by Jessie Ann Foley
As an overall story, there's nothing new here. The rebellious teen and the crotchety old man straightening each other out is the worst form of trope -- a fantasy worth of a Hallmark show. And the rural Irish setting is full of plenty of stereotypical blarney. But the book is full of surprises.
Breda has never had a father in the picture and returning to her mother's home gives her a chance to track him down. Doing so dredges up a lot of buried grudges and anger. It also causes her to stumble over the fact that her grandfather was also born out of wedlock. And in his days, such children were abandoned to orphanages where they were subject to severe abuse. His trauma is largely suppressed but played no small part is how he treated Breda's Mom (and thus Breda). Coming to terms with Breda's feelings about the lack of a father means also dealing with her grandfather's legacy. The result is a surprisingly complex story with pretty intense themes about family and abandonment, all of which might be a bit intense for middle readers but make for a surprisingly satisfying mature novel.
Saturday, December 16, 2023
The Hunger Between Us, by Marina Scott
In is the summer of 1942, the siege has been in place for a year. In that time, the weak have largely died off. The survivors are the resourceful. Liza is a survivor. Through petty theft and deceit, she has managed to scour up enough food to keep living. As the story begins, Liza is secretly burying her dead mother in order to prevent officials from discovering the death and taking away her Mom's ration card. Liza's best friend Aka comes across her after the disposal of the body and tells Liza that she herself is going to go to the "Mansion" (the headquarters of the NKVD -- the secret police) to earn some food. There's plenty of food for the officials and they are willing to share what they have with pretty young girls for a price. Liza begs Aka not to go, but what alternatives are left?
When Aka fails to return later, Liza goes out of her mind with fear for what has happened and starts to search for the girl. It's dangerous to poke at the lair of the NKVD and Liza's desperate search takes her in dangerous places where a combination of strong wits, sheer luck, and a bitter detremination to survive carry her through. Along the way, she renews acquaintances with two boys she knew from school who have taken drastically different paths: Luka (who hides underground and has abandoned his pride and humanity) and Maksim (who serves in the local constabulary and tries to enforce the law in the face of anarchy). Both boys try to help Liza, but in the end she has to take her own path to confront horrible secrets about the depths to which people will sink.
As grim and troubling as its subject matter, The Hunger Between Us explores what lines can and cannot be crossed and what survival really means. It's a brutal story populated with starvation and desperation. Scenes of physical and sexual violence, numerous references to (off-page) rape, murder, and cannibalism feature prominently. All of this, however, is just a setting for the very difficult decisions that Liza makes throughout the book. And she's definitely no saint. Her primary virtue is her ability to survive and by the end of the story she has plenty of faults to atone for. But observing her story in its context forces the reader to consider what they would do in the same place and that proves devastating. A powerful and memorable book and an unusual one of the genre.
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Friends Like These, by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
At the party, Jake and Jessica get separated and, before Jessica can realize what is happening, someone is livestreaming hidden camera footage of Jake and Tegan kissing! Worse, they have started to take off their clothes! Utterly humiliated by her boyfriend's very public betrayal, Jessica flees the party vowing to have nothing further to do with Jake or Tegan. But the next morning, Jake turns up covered in blood with no memory of his infidelity or of anything else that happened. And Tegan has gone missing.
A rather steamy whodunnit that annoyed me the deeper I got into it. The characters spend a lot of time obfuscating the investigation, which drags everything out and more often than not puts them in a worse position. There are odd priorities as well, with characters more concerned about statutory rape than homicide. And finally a large part of the solution to the mystery relies upon information only introduced in the final forty pages of the book, which is frustrating for anyone trying to figure things out along the way.
Sunday, December 10, 2023
The Rat Queen, by Pete Hautman
When Annie turns ten, her father gives her a peculiar instruction. Henceforth, whenever she does something she regrets, she must write it down on a slip of paper and stuff the paper into a hole in the floor. By doing so, she will be assuaged of all guilt and regret. She does so and is surprised to find that it works. But there also seem to be curious side effects: the neighborhood becomes infested with rats and Annie seems to have stopped growing. After her father makes several mysterious trips back to Litvania, he announces that they must go back together and it is there that the Litvanian queen reveals all.
A dark and fairly sinister story with great depth and plenty of color, but whose actual story felt uneven and unengaging. Litvania, while fictional, is a lovely amalgam of Latvian and Lithuanian culture (neither of which is commonly found in American literature). The story is littered with the dark and macabre fairy tales of Litvania, which riff nicely on the original Grimms (i.e., non-Disneyfied) Tales. The rats and the entire concept behind the "eater of sins" is fascinating. This is a story whose concepts will stick with me for some time.
It is thus a shame that the story is so lame. For the first two hundred pages, it is terribly slow and it took me some fortitude (and most of a week) to plow ahead, but then everything speeds up at the end in seeming recklessness. Either way, I found the reading more of a chore than a pleasure, no matter how much I enjoy the Baltic and folkloric references.
Sunday, December 03, 2023
The Melancholy of Summer, by Louisa Onome
To everyone's surprise, it turns out Summer has family to help her. Her cousin Olu, whom Summer barely knows, has made it big in Japan as a singer and is willing to take Summer in. However, Olu is only twenty and has big issues of her own. While Olu is wealthy enough to take care of Summer, she is in no position emotionally to handle the responsibility and Summer is simply counting down the days until she turns eighteen.
For Summer, it's all a bit too much. In denial about being abandoned, she can't navigate the waves of big feels she has. The wear and tear of spending the past year scraping by has also taken its toll. And now, with her friends graduating and going away to college, Summer is aware that everyone is moving on and abandoning her.
I enjoyed the unusual ethnicity of the characters (Summer's Nigerian and Olu is Nigerian-Japanese). Summer's love for skateboarding is a bit quirky and her resourcefulness in using it and the city busses to get around is pretty unusual. However, the novel annoyed me with the way it dragged out the story through Summer's stubbornness, the inability of characters to finish important conversations, and the eventual swift resolution of all of the problems in the last twenty pages. I didn't see the growth and it felt artificial.
Saturday, December 02, 2023
Wishing Season, by Anica Mrose Rossi
But as the summer comes to a close and Lily is about to return to school without Anders by her side, she has to move on. Learning how to make new friends, accept that the overlap is temporary, and most importantly find a way to keep her dead brother in her heart while making room for the future becomes her summer journey in this sleepy lyrical book about grief.
It was all very beautiful, but this treatment of death and grief didn't really break any new ground and there have been stronger books on the subject.
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Look No Further, by Rioghnach Robinson and Siofra Robinson
Ali is a local girl, a high achiever, and yet she feels out of place amidst the artsy types at the school. She slavishly copies the other students in how they dress and even in the art they create. She has little sense of who she is.
When the two of them get assigned to work on a project together to trace how their heritage has informed their art, they quickly make a shocking discovery: Niko and Ali have the same father! Neither of them have ever met him, but with some research, they discover that he might be living in New York. So, while trying to keep up on their studies, they decide to try to track him down to see if they can reconnect with him. The search causes both of them to confront the parts of themselves that they are uncomfortable with and subsequently to grow.
Overall, this a well-written story about self-identity and finding oneself.. For Ali, this is the traditional trope of discovering her own voice by ceasing to copy others. It also involves her becoming comfortable embracing her feelings for another girl. For Niko, it is about connecting with his Asianess (raising several issues about anti-Asian racism along the way). Either way, the novel has a well-paced dramatic arc and delivers a very satisfactory ending.
Saturday, November 25, 2023
The Fight for Midnight, by Dan Solomon
That's the set up that places Alex at the Texas statehouse in the summer of 2013 as the Senate debated HB2, a now largely-forgotten attempt to restrict abortion access. The events are a matter of public record and the book sticks largely to the facts of the case (the author was a journalist covering the protests) so the plot is less important than the story, which tracks Alex's evolution from an apolitical and apathetic young man to a committed activist. By the end of the story, his personal issues that form such a central role in his life largely fade away in comparison to his investment in the eventual outcome of Wendy Davis's historic filibuster. Of course, a few years later the repeal of Roe v Wade would largely overtake the now seemingly small fry of that debate, so the novel is really less about any historic achievement than it is about how the events impacted Alex's life. And that proves to be a surprisingly satisfying read.
Friday, November 24, 2023
The Secret Sisters, by Avi
A good historical novel for young readers that exposes readers to a variety of issues including women's enfranchisement (and the reaction against it), classism, and rural poverty. Ida's stubbornness is touted as far more of a virtue than it probably is, but the book's allegiance to standing up for your beliefs at all costs is unequivocally clear. A fast paced and enjoyable read.
Thursday, November 23, 2023
Rosie Loves Jack, by Mel Darbon
She figures out a plan and runs away from home. At first, everything goes well, but when winter storms cancel the trains, Rose has to navigate the not-so-nice streets of London. But she persists because she absolutely needs to get to Jack.
Told in Rose's voice, Darbon does an outstanding job of portraying a confusing and often threatening world as seen through the eyes of her young neurodivergent protagonist. That's a real challenge and Darbon is clever in her way of depicting Rose's fine observational skills with in the bounds of her challenges at communication. Some of the scenes in the book are downright terrifying, but the book avoids gratuitous melodrama in their depiction. Rose herself shows inspiring fortitude and strength throughout but in a way which respects the challenges she experiences in her life.
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Down Came the Rain, by Jennifer Mathieu
Eliza comes from a well-off family, but that didn't protect them from the flood waters and they have been forced to move in with other family while their house is rebuilt. Meanwhile, the flooding of her school means that she will now be taking classes at a neighboring high school, where the students are traditionally disadvantaged.
Eliza, who has been concerned with climate change for some time, sees Harvey are a warning that she must work harder to reverse the damage, knowing that it may be too late. She decides to take action and puts together a club to educate her fellow students and promote more sustainable practices at school.
Javier was much luckier. There wasn't any damage at his place, which is good since his family would never have been able to afford to rebuild, but the hurricane still has left its mark. Whenever it rains now, Javier gets frightened and curls up into a ball. He's falling apart but doesn't understand why. Into his world (and his high school) comes Eliza and her club seems the perfect antidote for what is causing his fears. It doesn't hurt that he finds Eliza inspiring and attractive.
While the club's efforts promise lots of positive changes, Eliza becomes frustrated at her inability to speed up the changes that she knows the world needs. She loses her perspective, causing her to commit a terrible error that could well ruin both of their lives and derail their goals.
While at times preachy, the story is an entertaining and engaging young teen book about climate change anxiety. It also takes on classism and racism, but not in any particularly new way. For me, the most notable thing was the effort that Mathieu put in to showing adults struggling with the aftermath of the hurricane as well. The teachers, in particular, were much more fleshed out as people than they commonly are (naturally enough, as the author is a school teacher). This carried over to a really nice depiction of the troubled relationship between Eliza and her Dad. It wasn't so much that the adults were the subject, but it was nice to give them a little depth and show that it wasn't only the kids who were hurt.
Monday, November 20, 2023
The Language of Cherries, by Jen Marie Hawkins
Oskar has every reason to despise Americans. It was an American tourist who caused the accident where his family were killed. Five years later, Oskar hasn't been able to get over the loss and it has afflicted him with a stutter that he self-medicates with marijuana. But despite her nationality, there's something about Evie that draws him close: her paintings. She has somehow drawn pictures of his family and of events from his childhood that she could not possibly have known about. He is obsessed with finding out why.
Embarrassed by his speech problems, he stays mute around her and she in turn misinterprets this as a language barrier. Liberated by the idea that he can't understand her, she opens up and freely confesses her innermost thoughts -- her anger at her mother, her longing for her Abuela back in Miami, and her loneliness. The more she confides, the more Oskar realizes he can't continue to let this go on. He needs to come clean, but worries about what will happen when she learns the truth.
An extremely slow-paced and lyrical work full of unusual eclectic elements: Evie's Cuban heritage, Oskar's exotic mix of taciturn Scandinavian and pagan Scots, and touches of magic through the cherry trees. The blurbs describe this as magical realism, but it isn't really that grandiose. Instead, this is more a subtle supernatural element that enlivens but doesn't distract. The characters are all quite memorable, but it is more of a study than a story. The plot alludes to whole slew of plot points (e.g., forgiveness, mother-daughter conflict, intergenerational understanding, and coming of age) but the book is more of a mood piece and there's very little development.
Sunday, November 19, 2023
Lola at Last, by J C Peterson
It's very rough going. Lola is a mean girl and a terrible snob. Unaccustomed to having to face consequences or take responsibility for herself, she's singularly unprepared for hiking nature trails. So, she stumbles from one bad move to another, alienating everyone around her until she has no one left. Forced to finally owns up to her situation, she manages to navigate her redemption. Part of that involves shedding her toxic former friends and ex-boyfriend and finding new (and healthier) relationships. Reconciling with her twin sister is also part of the equation.
Loosely based on Pride and Prejudice, this book is lively and quick reading. I imagine that for fans of the original, the story will be seen as amusing and clever. For myself, I found Lola too grating, nasty, and unsympathetic to ever really engage with. Lydia Bennet worked as a character because of the time period in which she was living, but in the contemporary world a vain young woman who delights in knocking others down really don't succeed. That Lola wins the nice boy and learns how to make a sincere apology in the end is not enough -- modern society has much higher expectations for young women. Were I to meet Lola IRL, I would almost certainly dislike her and I would never trust her.
Saturday, November 18, 2023
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, by Andrew Joseph White
That's when things start getting very scary. Silas quickly notices that the Veil is particularly thin around the school, a sign of unsettled spirits. The Headmaster, it turns out, collects souvenir trophies of the people he's killed and their desecration haunts the place. But there is deeper evil afoot. The students at the school are disappearing in particularly gruesome ways -- through medical experiments conducted in the basement. But by the time Silas uncovers the full extent of the horror (and the widespread involvement of the men around her) it may be too late to do anything about it.
Beyond the extremely graphic depictions of eviscerations, involuntary surgeries (without anesthesia), and lots of blood, triggers in this novel include rape, molestation, bullying, and self-harm. In other words, there's an awful lot of difficult material to digest here. Personally, I found that I needed to take breaks (particularly in the second half of the book where the scenes become notably more intense).
So, why read it at all? Despite being a painful story, I found it compelling because it is very well written and because much of the tortures described in the book are based on the real abuses committed by the medical profession in the period. It is a work of fiction, but raises many uneasy questions about how we define abnormality and deviance. Fans of Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish will be in their element. Readers with sensitive feels should almost certainly avoid this book.
Sunday, November 12, 2023
Actually Super, by Adi Alsaid
Ostensibly a spectacular road trip, this fascinating spiritual work about what ultimately makes us good and bad is a strikingly original work. I was drawn in by Isabel's grasping for meaning and value in a world that has grown so cynical and distrustful of such searches. When I was growing up, there were a number of popular novels that combined good storytelling with philosophical exploration -- where a fantastic journey led to enlightenment (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The World According to Garp, and Illusions amongst others) but that style of novel writing has largely fallen out of fashion. Alsaid, whose previous work (Before Takeoff) was about the Rapture taking place at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, is a bold enough writer to dust off this old form.
The result is a book that, while set in the current day, becomes timeless in its universal search for meaning. It could not occur at a better time. We know that the past few years have been particularly hard on the mental health of young people. In our age full of cynical politics, climate change, pandemic lockdowns, and short attention spans, Actually Super speaks to recapturing meaning and appreciating the small kindness that we can all do -- the ways we can all become superheroes. A book like this calls on the reader to set aside the harmful messages and look for goodness instead in the little things that make us so similar to each other all around the world. It's an inspiration and an unforgettable read.
Thursday, November 09, 2023
Reggie and Delilah's Year of Falling, by Elise Bryant
Sunday, November 05, 2023
Out of Character, by Jenna Miller
It's not that she's particularly unpopular (her boyfriend -- before she decided that she was a lesbian -- is the school's quarterback and her best friend is one of his teammates), but that roleplaying allows her to escape from her real world problems. Over the years, she has developed close bonds with the other players and feels closer to them than to her real life friends.
In the real world, however, no one knows about these activities. All that time online is hurting her grades, but her father just assumes that the problems at school are due to her Mom. Cass is afraid to let him know what is really happening for fear that he'll cut her off and she'll lose the only support she feels that she has. Meanwhile, she's hidden this geekier side of herself from her friends, for fear of their judgment of her.
When Taylor, a girl at school, on whom Cass has long had a crush, asks her out, Cass jumps at the opportunity. Things grow complicated balancing the new romance with her secret online life. While she freely tells the girls in her group about Taylor, she can't bring herself to Taylor about them. More awkwardly, Cass discovers that she has feelings for a girl in the group and must decide whether she would rather be with this girl or with Taylor.
Cass has some serious of character flaws that make her pretty hard to like. While she cleans up her act by the end, the way she treats her friends (and Taylor in particular) is pretty reprehensible. There were definitely points where I was tempted to put the book down. The whole lying-to-your-friends thing never ends well (especially in novels) and watching this train wreck unfold over the first 250 pages is pretty painful. So, a lot is riding on those last 100 pages! Cass redeems herself by being strong and communicative, and her ability to own her faults and (largely) address them.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the story and the representation of online role-play. As someone who does a lot of RP himself, I can totally appreciate the dynamics of the activity and the way it can easily become an obsession. The group's actual writing wasn't terribly good, but RP rarely is. Miller largely gets the fact that while it is game and a fantasy, for those people who participate in it, you develop real friendships and invest real emotions into it. And yes, RL (real life) is truly more complicated than RP, the dynamic of group on-line interaction can get pretty dramatic. A late scene, for example, where one of the players quit their group was devastating in a way that felt very familiar.
Thursday, November 02, 2023
Plan A, by Deb Caletti
At this point, the novel takes an odd turn as they take on a fairly leisurely road trip, visiting towns that are the namesakes of famous world cities (Rome, Lima, etc.). It's a little hard to understand why they drag out the trip this way and it slows down the pace of novel considerably, but Caletti has her reasons. Along the way, women come out and share with Ivy that they too have been in her position and that they also have had abortions. By the time Ivy gets to Oregon, she finds that she is far from alone.
Caletti's purpose is to demystify (and de-shame) abortions but pointing out that, as uncomfortable as the public discourse is, there's plenty of private conversation going on as a large number of women have gone through the experience. The book occasionally gets a bit preachy on the subject, but I thought it was a good talking point and allows the novel to make a constructive contribution to the issue.
Another theme in this book are frequent violations of the fourth wall as Caletti calls out the tendency to overdramatize abortions in novels on the subject. Ivy has some emotional turmoil, but she never wavers in her conviction that she's making the right decision. The procedure itself is dealt with matter-of-factly and concisely with no complicated preliminaries. There are not angry protestors, no last minute hysterics, and no drama at all. The only real tension is a bunch of petty harassment in her hometown (which seemed largely unnecessary and gratuitous). Her point is that abortion is only as dramatic as we care to make it.
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Summer of a Thousand Pies, by Margaret Dilloway
Aunt Shell runs a pie shop and it's struggling. Cady doesn't see what the big deal is -- how hard can it be to bake a pie? But when her first attempt fails spectacularly, she finds she has a lot to learn. It takes a thousand pies to learn how to make the perfect one, her aunt tells her. Cady's determined to try. She's also convinced that if her aunt would only change her business plan, the shop could be successful. But Aunt Shell is as stubborn as her niece and a test of wills develops between them.
This summer, it will take a lot more than a thousand pies to change Cady and Aunt Shell's world for the better. It will take trust, a family bond, courage, and an openness to accepting a little help.
A pleasing middle reader without a huge amount of surprises. Dilloway attempts to add some gravitas by bring in some undocumented workers to start a dialogue about immigration, but it's a half-hearted effort and doesn't add to the story. Instead, Dilloway's message of opening your heart and being unafraid to take risks has a more lasting message for the reader.
Saturday, October 21, 2023
If Tomorrow Doesn't Come, by Jen St. Jude
But as she is in the process of drowning herself in the river, her plans are interrupted by the shocking news that the world itself is ending. An asteroid is hurtling towards Earth and will collide in nine days -- ending all human life for certain. The result is global panic as people scramble to reunite with their loved ones and struggle to find meaning in their final days. For Avery, it means abandoning her plans and reflecting through flashbacks upon how she got to this point. In the process she discovers that people do love her and there is value to life.
Certainly an unusual story with its original combination of plotlines. While it sounded intriguing, I didn't find it worked all that well. Neither the end of the world nor clinical depression can really be addressed in a meaningful way in such a limited window and that sets the novel up to fail. The pacing of the two stories is necessarily different. The end-of-the-world story is very immediate and very intense, while the flashbacks showing Avery's descent into despair are moody and languid. Compounding the impossible stories is the fact that the book consists of almost entirely false starts. It's hard to say what one could do in only nine days that would have meaning, but it really isn't clear why what these characters actually do during it amounts to a compelling read.
Well-written but the concepts of the two stories never really pans out.
Sunday, October 15, 2023
A Song Only I Can Hear, by Barry Jonsberg
The majority of the book is actually hilariously funny. Helped along by the irreverent behavior of Rob's grandfather and Rob's own snarky observations about his school and family, this breezy read (I finished the entire 300-page book in an afternoon) is good fun. I would have been happy to have it end like that, but the author takes it in an entirely different direction that to me felt tortured. If you go back and re-read carefully there is some foreshadowing for the ending but it really doesn't have to be present (see below if you don't mind spoilers). And the book's final chapter, where the fourth wall is dropped altogether, really just seemed like nonsense to me.
<Spoiler> There will be readers who will feel it is really important to the story that Rob is trans, but honestly I found no value in that reveal except to give this book a new audience and an additional agenda it didn't need. There's very little in this story that relies upon Rob's gender identity or birth sex. Without it, this is a good story about a boy named Rob who had a grandfather who helped him find himself. And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter that Rob was once named Roberta.</Spoiler>
All Alone With You, by Amelia Diane Coombs
Marianne is a septuagenarian rock star who once fronted a group called the Laundromats, who had a string of hits in the 1970s and early 1980s. And, as stubborn as Eloise is, she makes a perfect match for curmudgeonly Marianne. Eloise, who never thought she needed anyone or their help, discovers that Marianne is a fount of wisdom. Most pressingly so, when Eloise finds to her horror that she is falling in love with Austin.
An above average romance with a set of life lessons in it. Eloise and Austin are fine in their roles, but the romance follows the fairly conventional storyline and won't surprise at all. Marianne, however is an absolute hoot and I could well have enjoyed a book about her alone. I had a mental picture the whole time of Joan Jett and it wouldn't surprise me if Ms. Jett partly inspire the character (although there are plenty of differences). The idea of a rock star having life lessons to hand out like a rock-and-roll Master Miyagi is hilarious in itself but who doesn't enjoy a story about a youngster learning at the feet of a senior? The book has feel good written all over it and a brisk-paced storytelling made this an enjoyable light read.
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
The Other Side of Infinity, by Jean F. Smith
December's presence (and presence of mind) was not coincidental. Ever since she was seven years old and her mother walked out of her life, she's been able to see the future. In this case, she knew the man was about to drown and when Nick did nothing, she intervened, saved the man, and altered the timeline. But as she did so, she foresaw that she and Nick would fall in love and that shortly thereafter he would die.
To avert that preordained outcome, she tries to avoid him altogether, but Nick can't stay away and she doesn't want him to do so. In fact, not only do they fall in love, but he promises to help her find her Mom -- a search which sets off a tragic chain of events, not all of which are foreseen.
In brief, it is an often confusing story with a fascinating circularity. So many subplots and they all eventually tie up together. This is complex and madly clever writing and a definite recommendation for people who enjoy stories about fate. While I enjoyed the story, I was less engaged by the characters in that story, finding it hard to really like either Nick or December. And was also disappointed that some elements of the story (like Nick's dyslexia or a school bully with sexual predatory behavior) were so underdeveloped -- a predictable problem in such a complex story.