Café Saturday

Imaginary Girls ~ Nova Ren Suma

2011-07-08T07:27:00.000-05:00

Chloe's older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can't be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby's friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.

But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood. {from book cover}

When I first heard about this book, I couldn’t wait to read it. I mean, it has some of my favorite story elements, plus the early buzz about it was great, so I figured it would be a slam dunk for me. Then I read it and… it just wasn’t.

I feel bad saying that because, looking at the book, I can see that it is amazingly well-written, the structure is superb, the characters are extremely well-developed. In short, my problem with it was not with the technical side of the book. Instead, I lacked a strong emotional connection to the story. Okay, this could be because I read this very early in the first trimester of my pregnancy, and so it’s possible that my fatigue is mostly to blame for this. Perhaps I was just too tired to really connect with the characters. Instead of finding Ruby fascinating, I just found her to be annoying, which then made Chloe and the people of the town annoying to me just for finding her to be this magnetic personality (plus other things that I won’t mention as they are spoilery).
But – BUT! – despite my issues with the story, what I keep going back to is that the writing is spectacular. Although I clearly found the characters less than impressive, the way the story unfolds worked for me. The scenes were so vivid that I felt like I was there watching everything happen before my eyes.
I wanted to love this book, but in the end I just didn’t. Had I read it at another point in my life, I may have had an entirely different reaction to it. But the truth is that our opinions of books (and everything else) are influenced by external circumstances; I can only give my initial impression. Maybe at some point I will pick this book up again and be singing a completely different tune.

Published: 2011 by Dutton
Pages: 352
Source: Publisher

A Very Special Waiting on Wednesday

2011-07-06T08:54:00.004-05:00

Girl Wonder ~ Alexa Martin

2011-07-04T08:37:00.002-05:00

As if transferring senior year weren't hard enough, Charlotte Locke has been bumped to lower level classes at her new school. With no friends, a terrible math SAT score, and looming college application deadlines, the future is starting to seem like an oncoming train for which she has no ticket.
Then Amanda enters her orbit like a hot-pink meteor, offering Charlotte a ticket to something else: popularity. Amanda is fearless, beautiful, brilliant, and rich. As her new side kick, Charlotte is brought into the elite clique of the debate team—and closer to Neal, Amanda's equally brilliant friend and the most perfect boy Charlotte has ever seen.
But just when senior year is looking up, Charlotte’s life starts to crumble. The more things heat up between Charlotte and Neal, the more Neal wants to hide their relationship. Is he ashamed? Meanwhile, Amanda is starting to act strangely competitive, and she's keeping a secret Charlotte doesn't want to know. {from book cover}

I’m not sure exactly what it was about this book, but whenever I read the summary of it for some reason I pictured it as being a lower YA, light read. Whoa, was I wrong. Like, completely and totally wrong. Charlotte’s new life in Seattle is filled with drama – there’s nothing light about it.
The story started out a little slow for me, beginning with a story of a ten-year-old Charlotte and her best friend, playing pretend at school, on the day she’s informed she has a learning disability. It wasn’t the most captivating beginning. But once the present-day, "Charlotte Starts Her Senior Year In A Scary New School" story started, I started to settle into the story. From the beginning, it’s obvious that Charlotte, as one character tells her, prefers beauty over substance. She’s quick to judge people based on her impressions of them based on little more than their looks, so of course she’s immediately taken in by “Girl Wonder” Amanda. Soon she’s fully submerged in the murky waters of Amanda’s world, which includes getting face time with her crush Neal.
This was a stressful read for me, as most stories of this nature tend to be. I hate to see a relatively nice (if somewhat superficial) girl get screwed over by people she’s so desperate to impress. This is mostly because I don’t usually find those people all that worthy of trying to impress in the first place. But Charlotte’s dealing with a lot in her life, with academic issues and family issues mounting, so of course she’s going to do what she can to keep the attention of the people she worked so hard to get. It’s painful to watch her as she spirals into a girl she doesn’t even recognize.
My favorite character, by far, is Charlotte’s younger brother. He’s kind of a genius, which she hates, but he’s the perfect character to bring some lighter moments into the story. Their relationship is typical of the sibling relationship in that they both hate and love each other (maybe Charlotte shows a bit more of the hate side than James Henry).
While I won’t say this is my favorite book that deals with the idea of trying to fit in and being betrayed in the process, the emotions it evokes are very real and very powerful.

Published: 2011 by Hyperion
Pages: 304
Source: Publisher / NetGalley

Mini-reviews (2) Sequoyah Edition

2011-06-30T07:13:00.000-05:00

Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan

I love Blake as a narrator! He’s funny, yet introspective enough to stop and really think about what’s going on. Madigan’s characters are fleshed out in such a way that, though I didn’t really like some of them in the beginning, they really grew on me. The family dynamics explored, not only in Blake’s family but also in those of his girlfriend Shannon and his friend Marissa, show the varied ways we relate to family whether outsiders agree with us or not. I closed the book wishing I could know what happened next for Blake and company, because I cared about them all.

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern

Reading a summary of this book, it could seem that it would be about how to throw off the judgments of other people and just be friends with whoever you want. And to some extent, it is. But after reading it, I think it’s mostly about feeling comfortable with who you are. Jessie struggles with becoming friends with the Dungeons and Dragons crew because she knows people see them as inferior and she doesn’t want to be put in that group with them. With a story like that, it could easily fall into the preachy camp, but it doesn’t. It’s funny, well-written, and extremely honest.

Reality Check by Peter Abrahams

This book takes three things I love and combines them into one book: football, mysteries, boarding school. With a combination like that, I expected to love it, but, alas, I did not. The mystery aspect of the book was strong – which is good since that’s kind of the focus of the story – but Cody never really captured me as a main character. Of course I wanted him to solve the mystery so he could resolve some things with Clea, but the book ends so suddenly I don’t feel that I got that. The investigation into Clea’s disappearance is well-developed, but everything else felt lacking to me.

Mini-reviews (1)

2011-06-28T07:04:00.000-05:00

Life is crazy right now. As proof, here are some mini-reviews for books that I not only read months ago, but wrote reviews for months ago. Months. I would've loved to write full-length reviews for these, but I just couldn't squeeze in the time to write any more than this. Clearly I can barely find the time to post them.

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
I loved Hex Hall, so I was hoping that this book would live up to my high expectations. It was so incredible that it blasted right through my high expectations! Hawkins packed so much into this book and I think it’s even better than the first. And once again, the ending leaves me wanting so much more. There were parts of the book that I wanted to be developed just a little bit more, but those were secondary plots, so the fact that they weren’t as developed didn’t matter to the greater story. I now love Sophie even more than I did after book one. If you haven't picked up this series, you're missing out!
{Published: 2011 by Disney • Hyperion Books / Pages: 359 / Source: purchased}

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
I’ve read a lot of books that are written as journal entries, and usually I end up thinking, Wow, these people put such detail in their journals. I’m a pretty detail-oriented person, but my journals are not nearly this detailed. With Miranda’s journal, I actually felt like I was reading the journal of a sixteen-year-old girl. Sometimes the things she wrote about are boring, because her life was boring that day. And the dystopian world that occurs after the asteroid hits the moon is one that I can actually see happening. (I did question the fact that scientists hadn’t at least considered the possibility that the asteroid could have devastating effects, but I was able to put that aside.)
{Published: 2006 by Harcourt Children's Books / Pages: 337 / Source: library}

Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley
You know those stories where the rich girl is so snobby in the beginning, and then something happens to knock her down, and by the end of the story she’s changed so much that she doesn’t even care that she lost everything she once cared about? This is not that story. Instead, this is more realistic. Corrinne hates that she has to move to Texas, and when she gets there it seems as though nothing changes her. But then a friend comes to visit and she realizes that she really has changed. It’s nothing drastic, like she’s willing to turn her back on her Manhattan lifestyle if given the choice, but the changes are believable and make a difference in her life. And instead of a boy being the catalyst for realizing what needs improvement in her life, it’s her family and friends who help her see her true self.
{Published: 2011 by HarperTeen / Pages: 289 / Source: publicist}

Guest Post: Holly Schindler

2011-05-06T07:00:00.071-05:00

Holly Schindler is the author of A BLUE SO DARK, which I love, and this year's PLAYING HURT (which I also love but haven't yet reviewed). Chelsea, one of PLAYING HURT's main characters, was the star of her high school basketball team until an injury ended her season early. Although I myself am not a star athlete (in any way, shape, or form), my life revolves around basketball for about nine months out of the year. I asked Holly to share about how basketball became such a big part of Chelsea's story.

Chelsea, Sports, And Me

I’m no athlete. At all. It’s a little pitiful, actually, how clumsy I am.

I chose to write about athletes in a roundabout way. The first draft of PLAYING HURT didn’t feature the sports subplot at all. When I drafted PLAYING HURT, I wanted to write a story about learning the difference between loving someone (how Chelsea feels about Gabe) and being truly IN love with someone (how she feels about Clint). In the original book, Chelsea went on vacation, and found herself falling for her guide, Clint, in a way she had never fallen for her boyfriend at home…

I knew something was missing, but just wasn’t sure what…After selling A BLUE SO DARK, I re-read PLAYING HURT (which was then called SUMMER FLING). I realized what was missing was backstory…as I read, I was really struck by how athletic Chelsea seemed…hiking, fishing, all existed in the original draft—so I started thinking, “Well, what if she IS and athlete—then I thought, “What if she WAS an athlete?”

Even as I was realizing Chelsea was telling me she wanted to be an athlete, I still felt a little iffy about it. I wondered—could I pull off an athletic backstory? Would I be able to write the emotions / sensations of playing ball in a believable way?

Which is really the reason I chose to make Chelsea a basketball player. In some ways, it’s the most natural fit in this area—at one point, the Missouri State University Lady Bears basketball team was really the most popular sports team in the area. And I do remember with fondness when the Lady Bears made it to the Final Four when I was in grad school…

And of all the informal neighborhood driveway-sports, I did play a little basketball—pitifully, of course. But I did have a hoop at the end of my driveway that didn’t go completely unused. So I felt I could pull that off better than any other…

It’s amazing the places your characters will want to go, though, if you just listen to them. PLAYING HURT was truly the first time I let my characters tell me who they were, instead of the other way around…and I’m so, so glad I did.

Be sure to check out PLAYING HURT, and don't forget about Holly's debut novel, A BLUE SO DARK.

Star basketball player Chelsea “Nitro” Keyes had the promise of a full ride to college—and everyone’s admiration in her hometown. But everything changed senior year, when she took a horrible fall during a game. Now a metal plate holds her together and she feels like a stranger in her own family.

As a graduation present, Chelsea’s dad springs for a three-week summer “boot camp” program at a northern Minnesota lake resort. There, she’s immediately drawn to her trainer, Clint, a nineteen-year-old ex-hockey player who’s haunted by his own traumatic past. As they grow close, Chelsea is torn between her feelings for Clint and her loyalty to her devoted boyfriend back home. Will an unexpected romance just end up causing Chelsea and Clint more pain—or finally heal their heartbreak?

Fifteen-year-old Aura Ambrose has been hiding a secret. Her mother, a talented artist and art teacher, is slowly being consumed by schizophrenia, and Aura has been her sole caretaker ever since Aura’s dad left them. Convinced that “creative” equals crazy, Aura shuns her own artistic talent. But as her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet draws Aura toward the depths of her imagination. Just as desperation threatens to swallow her whole, Aura discovers that art, love, and family are profoundly linked—and together may offer an escape from her fears.

Find Holly online:

website / blog / twitter / YA Outside the Lines blog / Smack Dab in the Middle blog

Waiting on Wednesday (40)

2011-04-27T08:54:00.000-05:00

Waiting On Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Don't Breathe A Word ~ Holly Cupala

Release Date: October 18, 2011

Joy Delamere is suffocating.
From asthma, which has nearly claimed her life. From her parents, who will do anything to keep that from happening. From delectably dangerous Asher, who is smothering her from the inside out.
Joy can take his words—tender words, cruel words—until the night they go too far.
Now, Joy will leave everything behind to find the one who has offered his help, a homeless boy called Creed. She will become someone else. She will learn to survive. She will breathe…if only she can get to Creed before it’s too late.
Set against the gritty backdrop of Seattle’s streets and a cast of characters with secrets of their own, Holly Cupala’s powerful new novel explores the subtleties of abuse, the meaning of love, and how far a girl will go to discover her own strength. {from Goodreads}

I ♥ Holly, so of course I had to spotlight this book after the cover was revealed yesterday. This is one of my most anticipated reads of 2011, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. If you haven't read Holly's debut novel, Tell Me A Secret, you should do that immediately.

2012 Sequoyah Book Awards Nominations

2011-04-05T12:56:00.000-05:00

Every year in Oklahoma, nomination lists are published for the Sequoyah Book Awards. The Sequoyah program was designed to encourage Oklahoma students to read “literary quality” books for their age group. Students who read at least three of the books on the list for their age group are eligible to vote for the winner of the award. There are three lists: Children’s (grades 3-5), Intermediate (grades 6-8), and High School (grades 9-12). Books considered must be written by an author living in the U.S., published three years prior to the award date, and have received at least one positive review.

Following are the 2012 Masterlists for Intermediate and High School:

Intermediate:
Watersmeet by Ellen Abbot
Murder at Midnight by Avi
The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry
Darkwood by M. E. Breen
All the Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg
The Girl Who Threw Butterflies by Mick Cochrane
The Brooklyn Nine by Alan Gratz
Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
Newsgirl by Liza Ketchum
Slob by Ellen Potter
Bystander by James Preller
Positively by Courtney Sheinmel
Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson
The Pricker Boy by Reade Scott Whinnem

High School:
Reality Check by Peter Abrahams
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford
After by Amy Efaw
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Say the Word by Jeannine Garsee
Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern
Brutal by Michael Harmon
Freaks and Revelations by Davida Hurwin
Pop by Gordon Korman
Blue Plate Special by Michelle Kwasney
Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
A Map of the Known World by Lisa Ann Sandell
Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten

Where She Went ~ Gayle Forman

2011-04-01T06:52:00.008-05:00

It's been three years since the devastating accident ... three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.
Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Julliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future - and each other. {from Goodreads}

I can’t possible write anything that even comes close to the level of amazing of this book, so let me tell you my thoughts as I finished the book:
Beautiful, wonderful, everything I would expect, and even though I hated parts of it because it was so freaking painful it was so real and perfect and so true to what I think would happen that I want to just sit and re-read it over and over and over again and be in awe at the way the story unfolds because it is just so fabulous and marvelous and I love it!
So, um, yeah, I think I liked it.
Seriously, if you’ve read If I Stay, you have to read this book. Even though I wanted to scream as I read about the things that happened After The Accident, I honestly couldn’t see either Mia or Adam reacting in any other way. It felt like reading the story of people I actually know and thinking, “Yep, that’s what s/he would do in that situation.” The way Adam narrates the story, hopping from present to past and back again, reveals the details of his life with and without Mia beautifully.
Okay, for those of you who haven’t read If I Stay, you need to do that STAT! Just know that it’s very likely that you’ll cry, even if you’re the type of person who doesn’t really cry when you read books. I can only think of three books in my life that have made me cry, and that’s one of them. And I don’t just mean I got teary, I mean there were tears streaming down my face like a baby who lost her pacifier in the middle of the night.
I did not cry while reading this book, but there were a few parts (one in particular) when I know I would have had I not been trying to read and fix dinner and wrangle toddlers at the same time. Had I been sitting down reading it uninterrupted, there would have been some major waterworks.
Read this book. It is amazing.
And it’s beautiful – have I mentioned that? Because it is.

Release date: April 5, 2011

Published: 2011 by Dutton Books
Pages: 272
Source: from publisher

The Vespertine ~ Saundra Mitchell

2011-03-07T07:44:00.015-06:00

It’s the summer of 1889, and Amelia van den Broek is new to Baltimore and eager to take in all the pleasures the city has to offer. But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions she has only at sunset—visions that offer glimpses of the future. Soon, friends and strangers alike call on Amelia to hear her prophecies. However, a forbidden romance with Nathaniel, an artist, threatens the new life Amelia is building in Baltimore. This enigmatic young man is keeping secrets of his own—still, Amelia finds herself irrepressibly drawn to him.
When one of her darkest visions comes to pass, Amelia’s world is thrown into chaos. And those around her begin to wonder if she’s not the seer of dark portents, but the cause. {from Goodreads}

In many ways, this book reminds me of Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty. While I loved that book and the entire series, I have to admit that there were times when I had absolutely no clue what was going on. The Vespertine still had that very magical, historical feeling to it, but without leaving me feeling completely and utterly confused.
Because the book starts with Amelia back in Maine after her time in Baltimore, it is obvious that something went awry while she was there, and that something seems either to be tied to or exacerbated by her sunset visions. Yet, as the story of her summer in Baltimore unfolds, it is difficult to remember that things take a turn for the worse. That’s not due to any lack of foreshadowing in Mitchell’s writing, because it’s definitely there, but because she writes about Amelia’s time in a way that I got so wrapped up in the newness that comes with relocating and the excitement of a discovered gift that I forgot things would eventually blow up. And as someone who is always trying to read between the lines and find the next big conflict, it’s not easy for me to get lost in the moment like that.
What struck me most about this book was the writing. It is beautiful – from gorgeous descriptions of the surroundings to relationships Amelia forms with the people she meets.

I watched him move across the marble walk, his strange rolling gait nevertheless silent, even as I concentrated all my attention on each fall of his feet. I let him go so long, he threw a look over his shoulder to find me.

How quickly I’d come to savor those glimpses of his vulnerability, those tiny proofs that my heart was not the only heart that faltered. I swooped down on those tender scraps, viciously glad to devour them. I wondered at myself that his distress should please; what was the matter with me?

Lovely passages such as this fill this book, making me feel both jealous that I didn’t write them myself and lucky that I got to read them.
The best part of this book is that, at the end, I felt like the story was just beginning. Sometimes that can be a bad thing, but in this case it just makes me want to read what’s next.

Published: 2011 by Harcourt Children’s Books
Pages: 293
Source: publisher/NetGalley

Nothing ~ Janne Teller

2011-03-05T09:35:00.000-06:00

“Nothing matters.”
“From the moment you are born, you start to die.”
“The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. You'll live to be a maximum of one hundred. Life isn't worth the bother!”
So says Pierre Anthon when he decides that there is no meaning to life, leaves the classroom, climbs a plum tree, and stays there.
His friends and classmates cannot get him to come down, not even by pelting him with rocks. So to prove to him that there is a meaning to life, they set out to build a heap of meaning in an abandoned sawmill.
But it soon becomes obvious that each person cannot give up what is most meaningful, so they begin to decide for one another what the others must give up. The pile is started with a lifetime's collection of Dungeons and Dragons books, a fishing rod, a pair of green sandals, a pet hamster -- but then, as each demand becomes more extreme, things start taking a very morbid twist, and the kids become ever more desperate to get Pierre Anthon down. And what if, after all these sacrifices, the pile is not meaningful enough? {from book cover}

Reading this book was an odd thing for me. I consider myself to be a fairly optimistic person, but not overly so that I’m not anchored in reality. So reading about one guy claiming that everything is nothing and having his classmates be so affected by it – well, it was uncomfortable. As an adult, I wanted to round up Agnes and crew and tell them not to let Pierre Anthon steal meaning from their lives. But then again, that probably wouldn’t help seeing as he told them repeatedly that adults will tell them otherwise but they’re just lying so they don’t feel bad about fooling themselves that things matter.
The lengths to which the class goes to in order to prove to Pierre Anthon – and themselves – that things matter, that life matters, is disturbing. It starts out innocent enough, but quickly spirals into terrible demands of “important matters” to add to their heap. This book has been compared to Lord of the Flies, and I can see why, but I can guarantee you that Lord of the Flies didn’t twist my mind around like this book did.
There’s no real way to go into depth about this book without giving away some of the surprises inside. It’s not a book that’s going to win anyone over because of its characterization, but it surpasses that. Sure, there are characters and you learn about them through the course of the story, but it’s not really about them. It’s about everything and nothing and how we deal with the fact that we are merely a speck in space and time. Pierre Anthon chose to sit in a tree and do nothing but yell at his classmates; his classmates chose to prove there is meaning no matter what it cost them. I choose to believe that everything matters.
But maybe I’m just an adult fooling myself into thinking there is meaning when really everything is nothing.

Published: 2010 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Pages: 227
Source: library

Waiting on Wednesday (39)

2011-03-02T06:27:00.009-06:00

Waiting On Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Sometimes It Happens ~ Lauren Barnholdt

Release Date: July 12, 2011

On the last day of her junior year, Hannah's boyfriend Ryan dumped her. Facing a summer of loneliness, Hannah turns to her best friend Ava for comfort. Ava does what BFFs do: she stays by Hannah's side...until it's time for Ava to head up to Maine for the summer. Also left behind is Ava's boyfriend, Noah, who's such a great guy he gets Hannah a job at the diner he waits tables at. Slowly, Hannah comes out of her funk thanks to Noah's good conversation and their fun times at the diner. But things get complicated when their friendship turns into attraction--and one night, into a passionate kiss. The novel opens on the first day of senior year; the day Hannah is going to see Ava, Ryan, and Noah all in one place. Over the course of the day secrets and betrayals are revealed, and alliances are broken and reformed. In the end, everyone is paired up once again, but not the way you might think... {from Goodreads}

Oh, the drama… can you feel it? I’ve enjoyed all of Lauren Barnholdt’s YA novels, so I was excited to hear that there’s one coming out this summer. I love her voice, and I’m sure this book will have that signature Barnholdt style.

Paper Towns ~ John Green

2011-02-28T20:21:00.001-06:00

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows.
After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues - and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew. {from Goodreads}

I’ve read this book twice now, and it’s still difficult for me to articulate exactly how much I like it. But I do love it. As a result, I feel like this review is nothing more than all the ways I stand in awe of the wonder that is John Green.
John Green is amazing. Everything about his writing sucks me in at page one, from the characters he brings to life to the rhythm of the words with which he does it, and I want to live forever nestled in the world as he writes it. He has a way of taking incredibly huge ideas and bringing them into the everyday lives of his characters. Plus there’s the fact that he remains the only writer who has made me laugh so hard I cried. (At least twice. Once during this book, once during An Abundance of Katherines.)
What I love about the book is how it works on multiple levels. For someone who reads it just for the story on the surface, as a chronicle of the last days of Quentin’s senior year, it’s a great mystery filled with humor and introspection. But for those who look deeper, it deals with the idea that perception is not reality. Q’s version of Margo, the one he was certain he understood, proved to be unlike his classmates’ ideas of who she was and why she would disappear only days before graduation. They are forced to face the fact that none of them really knew her. Their changing views of Margo brought about changes in themselves, changes that were possible all along but wouldn’t have happened without the catalyst of Margo’s absence.
As is usually the case for me, this book is made by the characters. Quentin and his friends, new and old, are three-dimensional. They all have their flaws, but it’s easy to understand how they become and remain friends. Even the more antagonistic characters show vulnerability, making it easier to understand them without going so far as to excuse their behavior. And although in some books it works against the greater narrative, the fact that Margo becomes a larger than life character is integral in the telling of Quentin’s story.
Okay, this is where I throw off any semblance of dignity I have left at this point and implore the high school students of Oklahoma to please, for the love of all that is holy, vote for this book to win the Sequoyah award this year! Yes, I realize that it’s up against The Hunger Games and other incredibly fantastic books*, but I have it on good authority that Suzanne Collins will most likely win the intermediate category. While I can’t deny that that is a powerful book, let’s spread the love because HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS, if John Green wins he gets invited to the award ceremony next year which means he might possibly come to Oklahoma to get the award and then I might get to see him in person and then my head would explode because I’d be in the same room with John Green! (Or I’d be like this. Either way, I’d get my husband to film it and then post it online so everyone could watch.)

Published: 2008 by Dutton
Pages: 305
Source: Purchased

*For real, y’all, I respect and admire every author on this list and every single book is deserving of the award. But… it’s John Green! John Green!

Angelfire ~ Courtney Allison Moulton

2011-02-25T06:32:00.022-06:00

When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.
A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once.
While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember. {from Goodreads}

Think back with me many, many, many moons ago, to a little movie called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There’s this girl (Buffy, played by Kristy Swanson), and she’s selfish and vapid, but she’s haunted by nightmares that seem so real. And then some old guy (Merrick, played by Donald Sutherland) shows up at her school and tells her she’s a slayer and her job, as it has been over the centuries, is to rid the world of vampires. That’s kind of how this book starts, except instead of vampires, Ellie is fighting reapers. And instead of some old guy ambushing her in the girls’ locker room and telling her about her destiny*, Ellie gets Will, a hot boy who looks like he’s in his twenties but is actually over 500 years old. So he’s still old, but he’s hot, so there’s loads of sexual tension. Oh, and also, while Ellie lives in a world where buying designer clothes for a birthday party isn’t strange, she’s not quite so spoiled as Buffy at the beginning of the movie.
The book has lots of action, both current and flashbacks to Ellie’s previous lives, which propels the story forward quickly. Some of the subplots felt underdeveloped or somewhat unnecessary to the story, but since this is part of a series I’m thinking (hoping) that those will play larger roles in the future. In some ways this works, because I’m the type of person who wants to know if my guesses are right, but in other ways it doesn’t because those parts of the story that seemed to be dropped at times felt distracting to the narrative of the book.
Other than the fighting reapers part of the story, Ellie’s relationship with Will will probably be the part of the story that lots of people will love. And here’s the thing with that: although I can’t say that I’d be chasing after Will myself, there were definitely sparks between Ellie and Will. The tension between them was written in a way that I could see why she'd fall in love with him. At times I felt that Will was a little too perfect, but there were hints that maybe he’s got a side to him that Ellie just doesn’t remember yet. Maybe that will be explored in future books, too. I hope so, because showing his flaws will make him more attractive** and real.

Published: 2011 by HarperCollins
Pages: 464
Source: publisher/NetGalley

*In the movie Merrick is trying to get Buffy to remember who she is and throws a knife at her head. Buffy responds, “You threw a knife at my head,” to which Merrick answers, “And you caught it.” Ellie has that same moment with Will. I’m pointing this out because I used to quote her line all the time – don’t ask why, because I have no clue myself – so this part of the book made me laugh. I share because I care, people.

**Unless his flaws are deal-breakers, like he tries to kill Ellie or something. That wouldn't make him more attractive.

Waiting on Wednesday (38)

2011-02-23T06:49:00.009-06:00

Waiting On Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

The Day Before ~ Lisa Schroeder

Release Date: June 28, 2011

Sometimes there's no turning back.
Amber's life is spinning out of control. All she wants is to turn up the volume on her iPod until all of the demands of her family and friends fade away. So she sneaks off to the beach to spend a day by herself.
Then Amber meets Cade. Their attraction is instant, and Amber can tell that he's also looking for an escape. Together they decide to share a perfect day: no pasts, no fears, no regrets.
The more time that Amber spends with Cade, the more she's drawn to him. And the more she's troubled by his darkness. Because Cade's not just living in the now--he's living each moment like it's his last. {from Goodreads}

I absolutely adore Lisa Schroeder’s writing! Plus, you know, the whole beach thing that I’m so fond of.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz ~ A.S. King

2011-02-21T06:20:00.001-06:00

Vera's spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she's kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.
So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to? {from Goodreads}

I think I might be in love with this book. I mean, hello, the pagoda gets to interject its thoughts into the story. How can you not love a book when the pagoda interrupts the story to remind you that there’s a $300 fine for littering? Answer: It’s not possible. (Wait, what? You’re saying there are people who didn’t love the book? That not everybody loved the pagoda? Blasphemy!)
I’m a big fan of the messy relationship. You know, the one that’s maybe-kinda-sorta more than friends, but not really, except it is? That’s pretty much exactly what’s going on between Vera and Charlie. Or it was, until he betrayed her and then died five months later, and now she has to deal with that. Charlie is that boy that you know you shouldn’t like because he’s SO not good for you, mental health wise, but he’s just good enough that you keep holding out hope that maybe someday, like after high school when he’s had time to figure out how wonderful and understanding and perfect you are, he’ll finally get over his issues and you can be together. Now take all that angst and then have the guy die before he graduates high school. And haunt you. That’s Vera’s life.
As Vera tries to move on, she can’t help but look back at her life with Charlie. He was, after all, her only friend. She recounts their lives together in a series of flashbacks centering on Charlie’s many eccentricities. Watching them grow up together, I kind of fell in love with Charlie just like Vera. And, just like he did with Vera, Charlie Kahn broke my heart. Broke. My. Heart. Yet I still love him, just like Vera. See? I told you I like messy.
Okay, I swear the book is about more than Charlie. Vera’s dealing with other stuff in life other than him, but he’s definitely on her mind almost all the time. (With millions of Charlie-ghosts filling up her car as she’s trying to deliver pizza, can you blame the girl?) It's every aspect of her screwy life that makes me love Vera and this book. I couldn’t put it down, and I didn’t want it to end.

Published: 2010 by Alfred A. Knopf for Young Readers
Pages: 336
Source: library

Fixing Delilah ~ Sarah Ockler

2011-02-18T06:13:00.013-06:00

Things in Delilah Hannaford's life have a tendency to fall apart.
She used to be a good student, but she can't seem to keep it together anymore. Her "boyfriend" isn't much of a boyfriend. And her mother refuses to discuss the fight that divided their family eight years ago. Falling apart, it seems, is a Hannaford tradition.
Over a summer of new friendships, unexpected romance, and moments that test the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, Delilah must face her family's painful past. Can even her most shattered relationships be pieced together again? {from Goodreads}

Delilah’s family is full of secrets, and it is her desire to uncover those secrets that I found most intriguing about this story. This is one of those instances where, even though I figured out one of the biggest secrets early on, I wasn’t scratching my head over the fact that the main character couldn’t see the truth staring her in the face. Even though Delilah’s relationship with her mother is strained, and it’s obvious she’s hiding something, it seemed that deep down Delilah still idolized her mom and wanted to believe everything she’d ever told her. But with someone as diligent as Delilah, secrets can’t stay hidden forever, and the truth can be painful.
As for Delilah’s friendship/romance with Patrick, well, there are definitely some swoony moments. Not only is Patrick hot (and shirtless!), he’s also understanding of Delilah’s family struggles – to a point. I like him because he knows she’s dealing with stuff and doesn’t run off at the first hint of emotion, but he’s also not going to just sit there and let her use him. And, okay, sure, I sort of had a problem with the fact that he called her “baby” only pages after they reconnected after eight years apart, but other than that, their relationship felt perfect, flaws and all.
Although there were a few aspects of the story I would’ve liked to see developed further, overall the story satisfies. Being part of a family isn’t always easy and sometimes life gets messy, and how a girl deals with those challenges says a lot about her. Delilah makes mistakes, but ultimately she proves to stand strong.

Published: 2010 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 320
Source: library

Waiting on Wednesday (37)

2011-02-16T06:41:00.017-06:00

Waiting On Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

A Need So Beautiful ~ Suzanne Young

Release Date: June 21, 2011

Charlotte’s best friend thinks Charlotte might be psychic. Her boyfriend thinks she’s cheating on him. But Charlotte knows what’s really wrong: She is one of the Forgotten, a kind of angel on earth, who feels the Need—a powerful, uncontrollable draw to help someone, usually a stranger.
There have been others before who’ve felt the Need, but they’re gone—erased from the memories of everyone whose lives they had touched. It's as though they never existed. This is the fate that awaits Charlotte. But the last thing Charlotte wants to do is disappear, to be Forgotten. She wants to stay with her best friend, whose life is spiraling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend’s arms forever. She wishes she could just ignore the Need, but she can’t. And as everyone important in her life begins to slowly forget her, she has to decide if she’ll fight the Need in order to remain herself—no matter how dark the consequences. {from Goodreads}

I like the idea that it's about angels, but it's done in a way that is different from the other angel books out right now.

Real Live Boyfriends* ~ E. Lockhart

2011-02-14T06:05:00.013-06:00

*Yes, boyfriends, plural. If my life weren’t complicated – I wouldn’t be Ruby Oliver.

Ruby Oliver is a senior in high school, and she’s in love. Or it would be love, if Noel, her real live boyfriend, would call her back. But Noel seems to have turned into a pod-robot lobotomy patient, and Ruby can’t figure out why.
Not only is her romantic life a shambles:
Her dad is eating nothing but Cheetos,
Her mother’s got a piglet head in the refrigerator,
Hutch has gone to Paris to play baguette air guitar,
Gideon shows up shirtless,
And the pygmy goat Robespierre is no help whatsoever.
Will Ruby ever control her panic attacks?
Will she ever understand boys?
Will she ever stop making lists?
(No to that last one.)
In the fourth hilarious episode of Ruby Oliver’s high school career, the neurotic, hyperverbal heroine of The Boyfriend List and its companions interviews her friends for a documentary on love and popularity. While doing so, she turns up some uncomfortable truths – and searches for a way to get back what she had with Noel.
Roo has lost most of her friends. She’s lost her true love, more than once. She’s lost her grandmother, her job, her reputation, and possibly her mind. But she’s never lost her sense of humor. The Ruby Oliver books are the record of her survival. {from book cover}

Oh Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. I love Ruby Oliver. With her self-loathing, second-guessing, obsessively overthinking, she could be me or almost any girl I knew in high school. Take, for instance, Ruby’s reaction at receiving poems from Noel while he is out of town.

1. He loves me! Poemy poem goodness! Romance!

2. No. If he loved you, he’d call you back.

3. Maybe his phone broke.

4. Then he’d e-mail you that his phone broke.

5. But a poem! Two poems. Romantic poems!

6. Yeah, but what’s stopping him from writing you back about Hutch’s going-away party? He needs to write back about that. A real live boyfriend would write back about that.

7. Yeah. That’s true…

(This continues through 16 points, but I think you get the idea.)

Can I tell you how many times I went through conversations like this (with myself; yes, I’m crazy just like Ruby) in high school? No, actually, I can’t, because there are far too many instances to count. It happened, I don’t know, like every. Single. Day. Probably more than once.
So this book is like the “after the happy ending” book. As Ruby points out early in the book, you’re never at the end until you die. And everyone knows that happily ever after isn’t necessarily happy all the time. This story deals with what happens when it’s not happy, when things fall apart, when the silence is unbearable. I know, it totally sounds depressing, but it’s Ruby Oliver, so it’s not.
All the characters in this book (in this series, in fact) are great, from Ruby’s parents and Dr. Z to Hutch and Meghan and their other classmates. And even though Kim and Cricket are still around and antagonistic, they’ve finally faded to the background of Ruby’s world.
And the ending of this book is perfect. Not perfect like everything is fantastic and Ruby will never have another problem again because she has conquered them all and is now a perfect human being. It’s perfect in the sense that flaws are acknowledged and the fact that they aren’t going away is addressed. In short: it’s real. And that is absolutely wonderful!

Published: 2010 by Delacorte Press
Pages: 222
Source:library

Across The Universe ~ Beth Revis

2011-02-11T07:09:00.001-06:00

Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the spaceship Godspeed. She has left her boyfriend, friends – and planet – behind to join her parents as a member of Project Ark Ship. Amy and her parents believe they will wake on a new planet, Centauri-Earth, three hundred years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed’s scheduled landing, cryo chamber 42 is mysteriously unplugged, and Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber.
Someone tried to murder her.
Now, Amy is caught inside a tiny world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed’s 2,312 passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader. And Elder, Eldest’s rebellious teenage heir, is both fascinated with Amy and eager to discover whether he has what it takes to lead.
Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she put her faith in a boy who has never seen life outside the ship’s cold metal walls? All Amy knows is that she and Elder must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again. {from book cover}

What I love about this book: It’s like Doctor Who, but instead of just popping in to visit and then getting in the TARDIS and moving on to the next adventure, everyone is stuck on this spaceship. There is no escape, except for death.
This next statement may seem contradictory to the previous paragraph, but it’s true; I’m not really a big sci-fi fan. I mean, yeah, I was all about Star Wars when I was little, but then I turned six and was through with that. So I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy this book. I figured the underlying story would be good, but could I wade through all the science fiction bits?
Y’all, it’s good. So. Good. Obviously there’s got to be that sort of talk in the book, what with them being on a spaceship going to inhabit another planet, but it’s not so heavy that it’s an information overload that makes my eyes glaze over as I’m reading. This is in part because Amy is coming from the same world as the reader, so a lot of it is how she misses things like fresh air and rain and tasty food. Because the story is told from both her’s and Elder’s points of view, there is a good balance to the story.
As for the story, well, there’s so much going on that by the end of the book I knew so much about the world inside Godspeed that it was as if I actually lived there. It was hard to believe I’d only read one book and not a series of books. There’s a mystery surrounding Amy’s awakening, but there’s also so many other plots that carry the book along to the end in a way that the story never loses forward momentum.
A great thing about this is that, though it is part of a series, I didn’t end the book thinking, “Wow, that was a lot of buildup to nothing but a cliffhanger.” Stuff happens. And it is huge! There is resolution, but it is obvious that the story is just beginning.

Published: 2011 by Razorbill
Pages: 398
Source: library

Waiting on Wednesday (36)

2011-02-09T06:15:00.000-06:00

Waiting On Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Moonglass ~ Jessi Kirby

Release Date: May 3, 2011

A contemporary YA novel about a girl who, years after her mother's death, gets a fresh start in a new seaside town. She seems to be outrunning the past, but discovers that the sea glass she wears around her neck is not just a token of her mother's memory but a connection to the very stretch of water she now calls home. {from author’s website}

There’s just something about the ocean… Even though this short summary doesn’t give a lot of information about the story, I’ve been excited to read the book since I first came across it. When I found out Sarah Dessen blurbed it, it became a must read.

Girl Overboard ~ Justina Chen Headley

2011-02-07T06:05:00.009-06:00

Everybody thinks Syrah is the golden girl. After all, her father is Ethan Cheng, billionaire, and she has everything any kid could possibly desire: a waterfront mansion, jet plane, and custom-designed snowboards. But most of what glitters in her life is fool's gold. Her half-siblings hate her, her best friend's girlfriend is ruining their friendship, and her own so-called boyfriend is only after her for her father’s name. When her broken heart results in a snowboarding accident that exiles her from the mountains - the one place where she feels free and accepted for who she is, not what she has - can Syrah rehab both her busted-up knee and her bruised heart? {from book cover}

This is one of those books that, though it took me a while to get into the flow of the story, by the end I loved it. Syrah’s conflicts, both internal and external, are revealed slowly, but not in a way that made me want to stop reading. It’s more in the way that you get to know someone over time and then realize that that person has become your best friend. And there were so many things about Syrah that I absolutely adored.
What I liked most about the book is that it involved Syrah re-evaluating her life and realizing what was really most important to her. By doing that she opened herself up to new friendships and passions that would otherwise be undiscovered. It is by discovering herself that she begins to understand the people around her, including her parents who have always felt distant. But it’s not an easy process.
Although Syrah undergoes a lot of change from the first page to the last, this isn’t one of those books where everything is resolved neatly and simply. Just as in life, there are loose ends. However, I felt hopeful that she would be able to eventually overcome the obstacles in her way and be even stronger for the fight it took to do it. Her growth over the course of the book proved to me she is more than capable of handling whatever comes her way.

Published: 2008 by Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 336
Source: purchased

Fall For Anything ~ Courtney Summers

2011-02-03T06:37:00.010-06:00

When Eddie Reeves’s father commits suicide her life is consumed by the nagging question of why? Why when he was a legendary photographer and a brilliant teacher? Why when he seemed to find inspiration in everything he saw? And, most important, why when he had a daughter who loved him more than anyone else in the world? When she meets Culler Evans, a former student of her father’s and a photographer himself, an instant and dangerous attraction begins. Culler seems to know more about her father than she does and could possibly hold the key to the mystery surrounding his death. But Eddie’s vulnerability has weakened her and Culler Evans is getting too close. Her need for the truth keeps her hanging on...but are some questions better left unanswered? {from book cover}

When someone dies – no matter the circumstances surrounding their death – it is the people left behind that have to pick up the pieces of their broken hearts and try to live. But when that person ended their own life, those pieces are shattered into pieces so miniscule that they can’t even be found. Eddie’s questions are painful because, not only is the one person who could answer them gone forever, the people left behind are so absorbed in their own grief that they don’t even realize how lost Eddie is – until Culler. He not only misses her father, he wants answers of his own, so when he finds something at the site of his death, both he and Eddie hold on to that as the last thread of hope for closure, or something close to it.
The journey they go on in their attempt to find answers is emotional. Eddie’s pain is so fresh that everything they find is like someone prodding at a wound. She pushes aside everything else in her life to follow this obsession, and as I read I ached for her as it seemed apparent that, no matter what she found, it wouldn’t help. And even though I had a pretty good idea of what was at the end of the road, I kept hoping that Eddie would miraculously find all the answers she needed and be perfectly whole again, even though I knew that wouldn’t happen. (Not a spoiler, I swear. I mean, is anyone ever really perfectly whole again after the death of a parent? No. This is my point.) That’s the wonderfully brilliant thing about Courtney Summers – she writes things that are so painful yet so compelling at the same time that I can’t look away.
Also, a bonus: this book addresses the hard questions in life, like, Why in the world do people send you lame sympathy cards when someone you love dies? They don’t help, and you’ve killed innocent trees in the process. I think sympathy cards should be outlawed. For real.

Published: 2010 by St. Martin’s Griffin
Pages: 230
Source: from publisher

Changes

2011-02-02T14:32:00.000-06:00

This is not a picture of events outside my door.

Unless I live in 1947 New York.

Which I don't.

It's an Associated Press file photo.

So I'm stuck at home today for the second day of the snowpocalypse / snowmaggedon / snOMG of 2011 and I decided to mess around with the blog layout. After a few major mistakes that completely freaked me out, I decided that small changes are better. I don't need to feel lost on my own blog. Other than the cosmetic changes I made to the blog today, I'll be changing a few other things.
1) No more ratings. I tried to do the whole 1-5 stars equivalent thing, but it just doesn't work for me. I've been thinking about dropping them for awhile, and now I'm doing it.
2) One of my goals for this year is to have more balance in my life. In order to do that, I can't justify spending hours on the blog every week. It takes me 30-45 minutes to write one review, and I've been trying to post at least three a week. With work and kids and the non-blogging projects I have going, I just can't do that anymore. I'm still working out whether that means less reviews each week or revising the way I write reviews, but this is a heads up that there will be changes coming.
Well, okay, so that's only two things. But since I'm in the mood for changes, it's very likely I'll change some other things too, so don't be surprised when those happen!

Waiting on Wednesday (35)

2011-01-26T06:39:00.014-06:00

Waiting On Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Shine ~ Lauren Myracle

Release Date: May 1, 2011

When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small town did it. Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery mines the secrets of a tightly knit Southern community and examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone you know in the name of justice.

Against a backdrop of poverty, clannishness, drugs, and intolerance, Myracle has crafted a harrowing coming-of-age tale couched in a deeply intelligent mystery. Smart, fearless, and compassionate, this is an unforgettable work from a beloved author. {from Goodreads}
This summary pushes every one of my buttons. I MUST read this book.

Café Saturday

Imaginary Girls ~ Nova Ren Suma

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A Very Special Waiting on Wednesday

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Girl Wonder ~ Alexa Martin

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Mini-reviews (2) Sequoyah Edition

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Mini-reviews (1)

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Guest Post: Holly Schindler

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Waiting on Wednesday (40)

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2012 Sequoyah Book Awards Nominations

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Where She Went ~ Gayle Forman

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The Vespertine ~ Saundra Mitchell

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Nothing ~ Janne Teller

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Waiting on Wednesday (39)

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Paper Towns ~ John Green

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Angelfire ~ Courtney Allison Moulton

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Waiting on Wednesday (38)

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Please Ignore Vera Dietz ~ A.S. King

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Fixing Delilah ~ Sarah Ockler

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Waiting on Wednesday (37)

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Real Live Boyfriends* ~ E. Lockhart

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Across The Universe ~ Beth Revis

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Waiting on Wednesday (36)

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Girl Overboard ~ Justina Chen Headley

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Fall For Anything ~ Courtney Summers

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Changes

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Waiting on Wednesday (35)

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