Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Guys, this book. This. Book. I read it on a Monday evening when Mike was out of town, finishing up around 10pm. The next morning I got up for work at 5:30, as usual, and sat and re-read the last couple chapters. All week I fought the urge to re-read large portions, if not the entire book.  I literally can't remember the last book that made me feel this way. It was SO good. I'd like to just tell you all to go read it and leave it at that, but I won't.

Here's the summary, from Amazon:
Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he's pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he's never met.

Incredibly funny and poignant, this twenty-first-century coming-of-age, coming out story—wrapped in a geek romance—is a knockout of a debut novel by Becky Albertalli.

Ok, so this doesn't even begin to describe the plot. Simon is gay, and he has an online friend named Blue, who is also gay.  Simon and Blue go to the same school but because neither one is out, they don't know who the other is. In a horrifying turn of events one of their classmates, Martin, discovers Simon's email, and uses it to blackmail Simon into helping him date Abby, a friend of Simon's. Then there's a love triangle with Simon's best friends (Nick and Leah) and Abby, a high school musical, some sisters, and parents who are remarkably present for a YA novel.

Simon and Blue have this terrific email flirtation going on. They both are trying to figure out who the other is, while at the same time are worried that if they knew the magic would be lost. It is adorable and sweet with just the exact right level of teenage sexual flirting, it's never taken anywhere inappropriate, and actual real thoughts about sex, beyond flirting, are vague and clearly futuristic. This could be any two teens, girls and/or boys, falling in love for the first time. The emails are so perfectly written and the responses are so good. Throw into this the added stress of not being publicly out, and for Simon, the blackmail of being outed before he's ready and it's emotional on a level most of us don't have to think about.

Each chapter opens with a handful of email between Simon and Blue, and then the rest is the narrative of the story from Simon's perspective. He worries about all the things he's juggling, he thinks about Blue, he is furious at Martin, and when things start to unravel, he handles it all in a very realistic manner. He's a kid and it shows but he's also wrestling with some big things. The books has the absolutely perfect tone to convey everything that's going on, while still being a sweet story of two people anxiously falling in love. The ultimate resolution is adorable and perfect and my heart was squeeing in my chest both times I read it.

I recognize that some people will be put off by it being the love story of two boys. Honestly, I'm not sure what to say to those people. They will be missing a really, really terrific book. I highly recommend this one, and I can tell you now that it's likely to be at the top of my best of 2016 list (if I still made those lists) and moves right in my top ten of all time.

Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

Mike and I are mildly obsessed with Tennessee, specifically the area around Nashville and Murfreesboro.  So when I saw Jennifer Echol’s Dirty Little Secret on NetGalley, I pounced. Country music (Mike hates it, I love it), Nashville, and Jennifer Echols? Yes please!  Tho to be fair I’m only 1 for 2 on Echols, I loved Going Too Far, but couldn’t finish Forget You. Dirty Little Secret lands somewhere in the middle.

Bailey and her sister Julie were raised on bluegrass and country music, so when the talent scouts pick up Julie and not Bailey,  Bailey is jealous and bitter. She resents that they were raised as a duo and now she’s being asked to disappear. Nobody wants the public to know about the secret sister who was ditched, so Bailey is supposed to stay home, stay quiet and above all don’t play any music.  Bailey has been moved in to live with her grandfather while her sister kicks off her tour and has taken a job playing music in the mall- some days she’s “Dolly Parton”’s sidekick, some days she’s back up for “Merle Haggard.” It’s the sort of job that flies under the radar and her parents aren’t aware of it.  Within a few days on the job tho, she meets Sam, a talented guitar player with own band who is looking to make it big in Nashville. Sam is convinced that what he needs to make it big is Bailey and her fiddle.  Sam is very persuasive and Bailey finds herself playing a gig with his band, and not surprisingly, they are good. Great, in fact. But is being in a really great band worth risking her future, and possibly that of her sister?

I really enjoyed a lot of this one. I loved the music scene and the Grand Old Opry and all of the technical music talk. I loved Bailey herself and I came to love Julie as well. Bailey is hurt and resentful, for good reason, but she progresses as the book does, and comes to realize that maybe she’s overreacted just a tiny bit. She learns to take risks that are for her future, as opposed to risks that would damage her future. Those aspects of the book are really well done.

Then there is Sam. Sam is completely manipulative, as is stated over and over, and it’s really hard for both the reader and Bailey to know what aspects are really his feelings and what things are just what he’s saying to get what he wants. Sam has exactly one focus in life- to get a contract- and he’s willing to use any connection at all to get there. It’s hard to know if what he feels for Bailey is real, or if she’s just another stepping stone. He is slick, he gets all the adults to eat out of his hand, he has his other band mates following his every lead, even when they can tell he’s using them or Bailey.  In the context of Nashville and the music parts of the book, this works very well. You can’t help but root for him to be successful.  In the context of a Sam and Bailey romance, however, I never quite felt that he really had feeeeeeelings for her. I didn’t buy into the happily ever after. The book ends on a high note, but doesn’t tie up all the loose ends. It’s a satisfactory ending and fits the rest of the book well, but I was really hoping for one that would knock my socks off with the romantic tension as Going Too Far did. It’s possible this will be that book for some people, but all I saw was the (well done)  manipulation. I suspect a lot of people will love the ambiguity, but we all know that I’m in it for the romance. 

Have you read Dirty Little Secret? What did you think?

 

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

I have only the flimsiest of reasons for requesting This Song Will Save Your Life from NetGalley. The title and the cover reminded me of Audrey, Wait! By Robin Benway, which I loved. I’m sure you see the resemblance.  (Yeah, I dunno, me either.) So I requested it, and I expected it to be something like 13 Reasons Why, only without the dead girl.  As it turns out, it wasn’t much like that at all, beyond being a young adult novel about suicide and bullying. Sounds lovely, no? It was terrific.  If you stopped me now and asked for my top five books so far this year, this book would be on the list.

Elise is a 16 year old girl starting a new school year.  She gets picked on for everything. She’s worked all summer to learn how to be popular, to learn the “right” things to say and do, and despite feeling like she’s made a change, the other kids (big surprise) still pick on her. Turns out, they didn’t change. So Elise goes home on the first day of school, and tries to kill herself (not a spoiler, this is very early on.)  Things really don’t get any better for Elise after that- now she’s just the weirdo who tried to kill herself. The bullying continues, both in person and via social media, and Elise feels hopeless and hates herself and everyone else. As a form of escape, she starts to sneak out of her house at night and take long walks through town, listening to music and wandering aimlessly. One of those nights, she stumbles across Start- an underground dance club- where no one knows who she is. She falls in love with the scene, and with the music, and when she gets a chance to learn to DJ she leaps at it. DJing, as it turns out, is something she is very good at. Elise meets new friends, none of whom know her past and all of whom seem to like her. Things are turning around until, inevitably, her day life and her night life collide.

Elise is a contradiction. She’s so aware of herself, in so many ways, and yet also completely naïve about the very same subjects. For example, she’s aware of why people dislike her- she dresses oddly, she’s precocious, she knows who she is- but she’s still surprised when they criticize one of those things. She’s smart and a bit weird without being a perfect student or a stereotype of the person everyone picks on. She desperately wants friends, but when she finally gets them, she doesn’t know how to interact with them since she’s too nervous about being betrayed. She can see exactly what mistakes she made to become everyone’s target, but she can’t prevent herself from making more.  Her new friends at Start don’t know any of this. They just see a normal girl without a freaky past, one is really good at reading a crowd and getting a reaction. Elise is swept away by the excitement of it while the reader waits for the other shoe to fall. I admit, this book was making me incredibly nervous near the middle. I was so sure things were going to implode in a very bad way. Instead though, the author pulls it through to a lovely satisfying ending. Not everything works out perfectly, all the ends aren’t tied in a pretty bow, but you believe that Elise is finally going to be someone who is not a target, that things really are getting better. Her problems aren't solved, but she finally has something good in her life to keep it from being so bleak.

I ended up loving this book. I kept thinking about it for days. Elise is annoying at times, and doesn’t think through all her actions, but it seemed real to me. This is how a real teenager would behave- imperfectly. I loved how Elise’s perception of other characters changed as well- her school friend Sally, her little sister, and Chas, the first boy to show her attention.  The book does have some underage drinking (it IS a dance club!) but Elise doesn’t drink. There is also some very vague sex, I think- it’s never explicitly said, but you assume it is happening.  I don’t remember a lot of swearing, but I assume it was in there too. The victim’s perspective is so well done, Elise is so human, with more to define her than just being picked on or one single moment (as in Speak) on which to hang the plot. She isn’t full of rage or revenge, but just a normal person who gets angry and sad as a person does. Overall, a really great book.

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

The Name of the Star is one of those books that I saw reviewed a dozen times but it really didn't grab me. "Girl goes to London, ends up in Jack the Ripper copycat murder investigation" just wasn't appealing. Then I started following @maureenjohnson on Twitter and she completely sold me on it.  I can't even pinpoint why, except that she's a very funny person in that medium and I was dying to be part of the fun of promoting both this book and the one that follows (The Madness Underneath.)  I requested both the paper copy and the e-book copy from the library, and they both came in at the same time. Of course.

So. Girl (Rory) goes to London to live at a boarding school for her senior year of high school. While she's at Wexford, a copy cat murderer starts to kill people in the style of Jack the Ripper. After Rory sees a potential suspect very close to a murder scene, she becomes deeply involved in the investigation, and discovers that she's got new superpowers.

I'm not sure why I ever doubted this one. I've read 13 Little and it's sequel and enjoyed both of them. Why wouldn't this one be as great? Because it totally was. First, Rory has such a great personality. She's a bit quirky, funnily realistic and has a terrific way of talking about her hometown in the swamps of Louisiana.  Rory arrives at Wexford as the token American, and while she doesn't struggle to fit in, the intensity of the boarding school experience is very well written. (I can say that, having gone to boarding school myself.) For example, this paragraph from page 60:

When you live at school, you get close to people really quickly. You never get away. You eat every meal with them. You stand in the shower line with them. You take class and play hockey with them. You sleep in the same place. You begin to see the thousand details of everyday life that you never catch when you just see people during school hours. Because you're there constantly, school time moves differently. After only one week at Wexford, I felt like I'd been there a month.

This is absolutely true. Even if I hated the rest of the book (I didn't), the boarding school bits are completely dead on.

Now that I've talked about everything else, what is the book about? Is the plot any good? Why yes, yes it is. So there's this murderer running around and one of Rory's new friends, the guy she's interested in, happens to be slightly obsessed (along with most of London.) While Rory is tagging along with Jerome, she happens to see a man near a crime scene, and upon further questioning, realizes that no one else can see him. Shockingly, the police take her seriously, and she become crucial to the investigation. Johnson's reasons for why some people can see ghosts are believable (once you believe in ghosts) and there are only a few moments of "hmm, I dunno about that..." It ends in a horrifyingly wonderful way, and has a definite ending while also setting up for the next book in the series. (Kind of like the end of Christine, if you read that. It ends, but there's that little "Ping!" of the next book.) I am really glad that I only have to wait until February 26th for the next book, because I'm really excited to see where this is going.

Because some people care about these things in YA books- there is a little kissing but nothing more. There is a little bit of light drinking, but they are in London, where the drinking age makes the legality of this a bit hazy.

If you pre-order The Madness Underneath, you get free gifts. (Offer ends Feb. 26.)
You can find Maureen Johnson online, on Tumblr (highly recommended), on twitter, and on Facebook.

Source: library e-book.

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Cas Lowood is not your typical teenage boy- he's a ghost hunter. He moves around, tracking the worst of the worst, the ones that are murdering innocent people, and then dispatching them with his father's knife.  His father was killed ten years ago doing the same thing, and now Cas uses his knife to continue the work. Cas and his mother have recently moved to a new town because rumor has it Anna, resident ghost, is getting worse and something needs to be done.  Cas shows up for the first day of school, charms the school's Queen Bee and makes the Head Jock jealous. He cons them in to taking him to see Anna, and then all hell breaks loose.

I grabbed Anna Dressed in Blood after reading Andi's glowing review. I brought it home, I read the summary, I put it on the shelf (as I am wont to do) and then when it came close to the point where I had to read it, I got started. And here's what happens- 75 pages into the book Anna shows up. She's terrible and beautiful and powerful and scary, and I closed the book to read it NOT at bedtime. Somehow, I managed to check a ghost story out of the library, and then was surprised when frightening things happened. (Huh? Yeah. Me too.) Despite the fear, I returned to it and finish it within a few days. Anna is still scary, but she's also remarkably human, and likable, and the more you know about her, the more sympathy you have for the ghost.

Cas starts the book as a bit of an arrogant jerk. He shows up at the new school with no plans to make friends, and is not at all surprised to gain the attention of several girls. As the book progresses, we learn that he's really not that outstanding physically, and you start to wonder where the initial magnetism comes from.  Despite his desire not to make friends, and his history of working alone, Things Happen that cause him to need the assistance of other people, and we find ourselves with a bit of a Scooby Gang. Thankfully, they are all likable enough, and aside from having a high percentage of weird names, believable enough. (If you can get past the idea of a 17 year old out to rid the world of ghosts, with his peers as sidekicks. Which, hello, Buffy.)

Overall, a great story and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, Girl of Nightmares . Once past that initial scene, the intensity of the ghost scenes drops a bit, so don't let it being a horror story put you off completely. There are a few other disturbing things, that I find I can't share without spoiling it for you, so if you're prone to nightmares maybe skip it. If you're a Stephen King fan, you're probably ok for this one too.

You can find Kendare Blake online here, on twitter, and on Facebook.

Erebos by Ursula Poznanski

I believe I've mentioned several times that my husband and I met online playing a MMORPG called EverQuest (13 years ago!) For both of us, EQ was a completely addictive experience, we'd both spend hours and hours a day in the virtual world of elves, barbarians, orcs, battles and quests. In hindsight it was absolutely crazy, but at the time it was a great deal of fun, and I miss a lot of the companionship of it* and parts of it became part of my identity.  So when I first read a review of Erebos, I was instantly intrigued.

An intelligent computer game with a disturbing agenda.
When 16-year-old Nick gets a package, he wonders if it will explain the behavior of his classmates, who have been secretive lately. The package contains the mysterious computer game Erebos. Players must obey strict rules: always play alone, never talk about the game, and never tell anyone your nickname.
Curious, Nick joins the game and quickly becomes addicted. But Erebos knows a lot about the players and begins to manipulate their lives. When it sends Nick on a deadly assignment, he refuses and is banished from the game.
Now unable to play, Nick turns to a friend for help in finding out who controls the game. The two set off on a dangerous mission in which the border between reality and the virtual world begins to blur.
This utterly convincing and suspenseful thriller originated in Germany where it has become a runaway bestseller.
 (From Amazon.com)

So Nick's friends are all addicted to this computer game that they can't talk about and Nick can't wait to get his hands on a copy. He finally does and is immediately sucked into the world. He makes a character and begins fighting battles and attempting to become one of the chosen favorites who will battle the ultimate enemy at the "end" of the game. The crazy thing about Erebos though, is that it seems to be alive- it knows what you're doing outside of the game. The game slowly builds, asking more and more of it's players, until they are so far entrenched that they would do something shocking for it. It's a really great concept and parts of it are really well done. I loved the play time and the intricacy of the game details.  It really made me want to go back to EverQuest for a bit.

However. It had some flaws. First, I didn't feel like the character interactions and the game details were written to the same level of reader. The gaming parts are detailed, full of suspense and mystery and foreshadowing, but the conversation and interactions between the characters felt much more juvenile. The romance was completely awkward and unbelievable, and unnecessary. The addition of an all knowing super geek to help them out should be a great idea, but Victor is a total caricature and the book never explains why they should trust him at all. None of the characters are very well fleshed out at all, for that matter. And last, the suspension of disbelief needed to believe that this is even possible for a game to do is just too much.  I have no problems with believing in the addiction to the game and the sleepless nights and can fully understand the lines between reality and fiction blurring for the players (Mike and I referred to each other, in person, by our game names for months after I moved here!) but I can't quite buy that AI could be this advanced without a human brain behind it.

Overall, still a good book, but not a great one.

*I'd compare the social interactions to what many of you get from Twitter, but with the added bit of playing a game together while you chat.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book via Net Galley for review.

Matched by Ally Condie

Ok, so. Matched. I've checked this out of the library at least 3 times, and every time it goes back untouched because of the love triangle plot. It's not a subtle bit of the plot, it pretty much IS the plot.  Love triangles are pretty much my least favorite plot ever. (Ok, maybe child murders or something, but I don't pick those up at ALL.)  Here's the summary of Matched from Amazon.com:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

See? So even though everyone on earth loved it, I kept sending it back.  Then BlogHer asked if I'd like to read it for the BlogHer book club and I decided to let them force me into finding out what happens. And what happens is that I ended up enjoying it (as usually happens).  Matched is one part The Giver (assigned careers) and a bit of Divergent (how you dress, how you live, your place in society) and a bit of Fahrenheit 451 (book burning!) If you're a fan of dystopian novels and you like a little romance you'll probably enjoy this. Especially if you live love triangles. (I admit to having a favorite here too, of course.) It's not my favorite book, but it is worth taking a look at. It is clearly the first part of a trilogy tho, so be prepared that it doesn't come to a neat tidy ending.

You can find Ally Condie online on Facebook, Twitter, and her blog.

I received this book from BlogHer in exchange for my review and participation in the BlogHer Book Club discussion of said book. All opinions are my own.

The Half-Life of Planets by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin

Liana is a girl with a reputation for being easy, a slut. The note in her locker at the end of the school year proves it. So this summer she's decided to prove to herself that she really isn't (because she isn't), and decides not to kiss any boys.   Hank is a nice enough boy, but he's also a boy with Asperger's Syndrome, with means he sometimes says the wrong thing, at the wrong time. He's also cute and funny, and Liana thinks maybe this no kissing will be harder than it seems.

The Half-life of Planets is a really cute book, told in alternating chapters. The voices of both Liana and Hank are really well done, and while I have no direct experience with Asperger's, I think this is probably pretty accurate. Hank is very literal, and guileless in his mistakes. His obsession with music would make me crazy, but Liana seemed to tolerate it, so it worked. I definitely liked Hank more than Liana, but both are well done.

The romance is slow and not heavy. There are no moments of crazy desire but several moments of incredible sweetness. It's not all light and rainbows either, as Hank has a hard time figuring out what's going on and Liana is a little gun shy. Both Liana and Hank manage to screw up, so nothing is entirely one sided.

 My only real problem with the book is the need to have a reason for why she kisses boys. Just wanting to kiss boys isn't enough. I felt like it was trying too hard to connect her "problem" with an underlying cause, which in itself is annoying, since kissing (and not more) doesn't seem like a problem to me. It is every more annoying though because the authors don't go far enough in connecting it. It's a very weakly explained cause and effect to me, and I felt like if they wanted to go there, they should GO THERE. Despite this it's a sweet little book and one I would recommend to other young adult romance fans.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

(I tried very hard not to put spoilers for either book in this post and think I succeeded, but read at your own risk.)

Insurgent is the sequel to Divergent, which was one of my favorite books from last year. It picks up exactly where Divergent left off. I was so anxious to get Insurgent. This was probably my most anticipated book of the year and I put my name in for it at our library before they even ordered it. (At my old library you could do this online and I regularly requested quite a few titles. At the new library, which is much smaller, you have to do it in person and they write it on a little slip of paper. I feel much more greedy doing it in person and so rarely do.) The book finally came in and I rushed down to pick it up - and then it sat on my shelf for nearly the entire month. The thing is, while I loved Divergent, I don't love suspense that much. In fact, left to my own devices, when faced with a book that is crazy non-stop action, I'll repeatedly set it down in favor of internal suspense. (This is hard for me to define in words, it's a specific type of tension that kills me, not all tension.) But then, the due date came and there were other people on the hold list, so I forced myself to read it.

With an intro like that, you might suspect that I disliked the book, that it was torture to read. This would not be the case! I enjoyed it very much.  Insurgent is a non-stop ride. The action picks up immediately and there is not a break until the end for the reader or the characters. The factions are at full out war and it's hard to know who to trust.  Tris is devastated from events at the end of Divergent, which colors her actions for the entirety of Insurgent. She has to examine her loyalty and decide which faction, if any, she will follow. For much of the book she is at odds with Four, unable to explain herself to him out of dueling feelings of grief and guilt. Meanwhile, the Divergent are being hunted and she's desperate to figure out why and feels responsible for the group if she doesn't. Roth doesn't hold anything back either, in terms of character actions or plot development, with unpredictable results.

Overall, it's a whirlwind of a book with hardly a moment to catch your breath. For the first time in my life I read the last few pages when I was about a hundred pages from the end, just to reassure myself. I closed the book wishing I had the third book in the series in hand.

Insurgent
Veronica Roth (Tumblr) (Twitter)
Katherine Tegan Books
2012
544 pages

Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they're witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave.

Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word...especially after she finds her mother's diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family's destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.

If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren't safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood—not even from each other.

Born Wicked is another book selection for the BlogHer Book Club. When they sent the request out  I didn't read the description quite as well as I could have and was taken by surprise to discover that it takes place around 1900. This detail alone made it a slow start for me, as typically the only historicals I read are romances. After a few chapters I was able to into it a bit more and from around page 50 it (or I) sped up and zoomed through the rest in a matter of days. As regular readers know I'm a big fan of paranormal, though usually more of the vampire/witches/werewolves variety than the presented-as-actual-historial-reality variety. (And only readers of paranormal will likely get that distinction, if even they do.) Born Wicked is also a bit of an alternate history book, taking place in a different New England from the one that really existed, with a much heavier religious setting and different country borders. There is a romance and a love triangle (though it is very clear who the true romance belongs to) and some fairly intense moments all around.

If you're interested in reading more about the book you can find the BlogHer discussion of the book here, and the first discussion question here. The author can be found online here and on Facebook here.  You can also watch the book trailer on her website, and it's really a lovely trailer (tho I could do without the sketchy moustasche). This is the first book in a series, but book two will not be released until next February.


This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, with bonus giveaway!

What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. The Beatles. And me.

Wait, that's a different story about young people with cancer falling in love.

So, The Fault in Our Stars. When I first heard that the newest John Green was about kids was cancer, I was pretty uninterested. I mean, really? Someone is gonna fall in love, someone is gonna die, I will cry. The main characters are all going to be wordy, insightful geeks. Then I read Amanda's review and I admit, she hooked me. I stalked the library, who still hasn't seen fit to get a copy. Then one day right after we got our tax return I saw a signed copy on the shelf at the local Wal-marts. With the Wal-mart discount, it was something like $12.  I brought it home. (Mine is signed in blue ink, I see mention of the color of ink, but I have no idea why it matters. Someone tell me?) And it should be noted that I read this in one very long sitting on Friday while I was recovering from my turn with the Horrible Horkfest of 2012 and spent the entire day on the couch, so I read much of it in a fever haze.

Hazel has terminal cancer. Augustus had cancer. They meet in Support Group, where they both enjoy a little bit of intelligent conversation and ever so gently making fun of the other people. In a surprisingly short time, they are spending all their time together, but Hazel is determined not to fall in love with him. Of course.  How can you fall in love at all when it is a given that one of you is not going to make it? How can you be alive, with all that entails, and at the same time very definitely dying? Sounds horribly depressing, right? But if you've read Green, you know it's not. It's definitely sad, and I did cry, but the book itself is pretty good. It managed to somehow both laugh at cancer and respect it, which seems to be an awfully thin line to walk, but saved the book from being a sappy mess or outright cruel.

Ok, so giveaway. Do you know what that opening quote is from? Leave the answer in the comments and I'll pick a winner on Friday. Honor system here, don't cheat and google it and don't look at the other answers first. The prize? No idea! Something fun though.

Split by Swati Avashti (and personal thoughts on abuse)

Wow, guys. This one is a hard one. I've been staring at this screen for way too long trying to explain, so I'm going to cheat and use the summary from the flap.

Sixteen-Year-Old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father’s fist), $3.84, and a secret.

He tries to move on, going for new friends, a new school, and a new job, but all his changes can’t make him forget what he left behind—his mother, who is still trapped with his dad, and his ex-girlfriend, who is keeping his secret.

At least so far.

Worst of all, Jace realizes that if he really wants to move forward, he may first have to do what scares him most: He may have to go back. First-time novelist Swati Avasthi has created a riveting and remarkably nuanced portrait of what happens after. After you’ve said enough, after you’ve run, after you’ve made the split—how do you begin to live again?

Sounds heavy, right? And it is.  I'm not even going to try and write a review of the book itself, for a terrific review go read Janssen's.

I do want to address the issue of physical and verbal abuse. I grew up in a situation that involved verbal abuse and alcoholism. By some luck of the draw, I was spared 99% of the time but the rest of my family was not so fortunate. Verbal abuse isn't as immediately life threatening as physical abuse, but it leaves definite scars, even to those who aren't the direct target. To those who are the target, you can see the effects 10 years later in their significant relationships and life choices. It is impossible to be taught you are worthless as a child and teen and still grow into a strong adult without a lot of work and effort.   I had no problems at all identifying with Jace's fear that he would turn into his father.  I could completely believe that his dad didn't see anything at all wrong with what he was doing, that they were out to get him.  I can remember hiding in the closet so that I couldn't hear what was happening and I remember the first time I felt smart enough and bold enough to put myself in the line of fire, and take the heat. My situation was different from Jace's though, because for whatever reason it usually worked when I did it.

Fortunately, in my case, none of us are in the situation any longer. This doesn't mean there aren't long term issues of self-worth and horrible patterns of behavior when we feel attacked. It takes a lifetime to undo something like this, and it's certain that we could have all used some kind of therapy. Given the chance, the guilty party will still belittle and criticize his targets.  This is why we have no relationship to speak of.  I am a bit hesitant to post this at all, it took me all day to write those two paragraphs. I feel like I'm divulging someone else's personal history, but I feel that it's relavant to my reaction to the book.

Bravo to Avasthi for getting it right, as awful as it is. I will be thinking about Jace and Christian and their mom for a long, long time.


Split by Swati Avasthi

January Mini Reviews

There are always a handful of books that I don't really want to write a full review of, but that I'd like some record or having read.  


Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.  I'd really have liked to review this one fully, but was completely stumped at trying to summarize the plot. I really enjoyed it a lot, loved the world Taylor created and the characters of Karou and Akiva and Brimstone. I loved the set up for the series, the reason for the book, if you will. I did think the last third of the book really bogged down, and if you've read it you know what part I mean. The more time that passes since I finished, the more I like it though, and at this point I'm very excited to see what happens next. Highly recommended.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. A 13 year old boy, an ill mother, a nightmare come to life. This one is loved all over the blogosphere and when I saw it on the library shelf I grabbed it. I really had no intention of reading it before seeing it there.  This is a short book, with lots of really striking drawings and terrific writing and is easily read in one sitting. I will admit that it made me sob, like it seems to do for most people. However. Almost the instant I closed the cover I felt manipulated. I didn't see any reason at all for the book, other than to make me cry. I went to read other reviews of people who saw Conor grow and confront his own guilt and grief but I was just a little bit annoyed by it.


Whiskey Sour (Jack Daniels Mysteries) by J.A. Jonrath.  This was my first entry into my personal challenge.  It was perfect for the time, I had a couple other books going that required more brain power. In the end though, I didn't love the book.  While the humor made me laugh in spots, the writing was a bit simplistic and I thought some of the jokes were a bit insulting. For funny mysteries I'd stick with Janet Evanovich, for interesting mysteries I'm still loving the Inked series by Karen Olsen, and for murder I'd choose J.D. Robb's In Death series every time.

Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Doug Swieteck and his family have just moved to a stupid new town for his father's stupid new job. His new house is A Dump and his older brother is a wanna be thug.  His mom is doing her best, but is no match for the force of his father, who drinks and keeps bad company. His oldest brother Lucas is serving his country in Vietnam. Doug is starting junior high in a new school where it is already assumed he will follow in his brother's footsteps. Even with all this stacked against him, Doug manages to find a Saturday job delivering groceries, makes friends with the grocer's daughter, and discovers a talent for drawing that allows him to see more than what is on the surface.

I picked up because it's on Janssen's list of best books in 2012. Chances are I'd have eventually gotten around to reading it anyway, as I read The Wednesday Wars a couple years ago and absolutely loved it. Okay for Now is a companion book, in that Doug is also in TWW, but it's not a sequel so you don't have to have read one to read the other. I read the first half of the book over a period of about two weeks and then on Saturday afternoon I sat down and read through to the end.

Schmidt has a very informal way of writing, the book is written in first person and Doug speaks directly to the reader throughout. Despite this, he also has a way of quietly layering details that make the book really terrific. For example, early in the book Doug discovers a book of John James Audobon's birds in his local library and begins to practice drawing them. Each chapter has a picture of one of the drawings and a bit about the composition of the picture (which forced me to flip back and forth to the picture as I was reading). Somehow these technical details about drawing don't feel forced as he's learning them, and even more impressively, don't feel forced as he is thinking about them later. For me, this is one of the best parts of the book, it's just so well crafted that you as you're reading you notice the terrific composition of the book, but you don't mind at all because it's so well done. (Another terrific example of this is Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes, if you're not so into YA literature.) There are other tiny details throughout that, when you notice them, are brilliantly done.

The book wraps up with a bit of a bow on an ongoing theme, but a bit of an open ending on the cute little romance.  Somehow the one balanced out the other enough that I wasn't annoyed by either (and yes, this is vague, but I don't want to tell you anything else.) Like TWW, it takes place over an entire school year, and the pacing is nice and solid.  At this point it's a foregone conclusion that I'll be picking up Schmidt's remaining book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy .

Have you read this one? What did you think? Have you ever read a book that blew you away with techinique, while managing to not have it impact the story negatively? I hate it when an author tries too hard to do something cool, but this one hit exactly the write notes for me. (HAHA, I meant "right notes", of course, but I think I'll leave that.)