Review: The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan

Back when I first read The Forest of Hands and Teeth, I was sorely disappointed by how much of a romance the story was. I wanted zombie action, not romantic angst. Now, I realize this is my fault for not thoroughly checking up on the book before buying it, but it made me hesitate before reading The Dead-Tossed Waves. Perhaps it was a stronger book, or perhaps I just knew what I was in for, but I ended up enjoying that much more. Still, the memory of The Forest of Hands and Teeth lurked and I waited awhile before picking up The Dark and Hollow Places - would it be more like Forest or Waves? And was I really in the mood for any sort of romance story anyway?


 Annah is alone in the Dark City. A place that promised safety after she and Elias were lost in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, the forest where they abandoned her sister. And now Elias has apparently abandoned her, as he should have returned from his tour with the Recruiters months ago.

If he's still alive.

Just as Annah has convinced herself that the City is no longer the place for her, as she is about to literally cross the bridge that will take her out of the City, an apparent miracle happens: her sister is here! And she's brought a mysterious boy with her, a boy the Recruiters want desperately, and who the Unconsecrated ignore like he's one of their own: Catcher.

As an unforgiving Horde bears down upon the City Annah was once so ready to abandon, Annah must look inside herself to understand what it means to have family and friends, and to what lengths its acceptable to go to keep safe what - and who - is precious to you.

One thing I've found very interesting as this trio of novels has progressed, is the way the settings have changed. When a series is exploring the end of the world, the usual progression is to go from largely populated areas to smaller, as the population is decimated. Here the progression is the opposite, as The Forest of Hands and Teeth was set initially in a very small village and then saw the village attacked by the Unconsecrated, leaving just our handful of protagonist to wander the dangerous Forest. The Dead-Tossed Waves brought us to Vista, a small town with knowledge that they aren't the last people on Earth, as there are the Recruiters working to keep the population safe and wandering bands of religious fanatics that see the zombies as something akin to holy icons. The Dark and Hollow Places gives us our biggest setting yet - the burnt out husk of a once thriving city (and Ryan leaves just enough clues that savvy readers will figure out what city it is well before Annah does). The actual scope of these stories has remained the same; there's no sprawling cast of characters to keep track of and the zombies are merely a dramatic backdrop against which romantic melodramas play out.

So how does this story compare to Forest and Waves? In terms of my personal enjoyment, I think it'd be in the middle of the three books. Of the three protagonists Ryan has given us (and as an aside, I love that this is a series that gives multiple view points, rather than contriving a way for Mary from  Forest to have all of these experiences herself), Gabry is my favorite. She's just so normal. She's totally fine with the status quo in Vista and doesn't feel the need to wander that Mary did. Annah doesn't have much of a status quo to either support or rebel against, and ends up feeling like a very reactionary character for me, after her first big independent decision to leave the City is immediately reversed.

Review: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

I know it's only March, but I think we have here our first serious awards contender of 2011. If Between Shades of Gray were a movie, it would be a December-released prestige picture, an obvious ploy for an Oscar win, but one it would surely deserve.

It's 1941, and Lithuanian Lina leads a comfortable life. Her parents dote upon her and her younger brother, she has friends and family and crushes, and amazing skills with pencils and paintbrushes that are opening doors to her future education.

But that idyllic life comes crashing down around Lina late one night, when armed men break into the house and pull Lina, her mother and her brother from their beds without explanation.

And so begins Lina's journey - one that stretches thousands of miles, from the quiet suburbs of Lithuania into the frigid depths north of the Arctic circle, as Lina and her family become victims of Stalin's march in Lithuania and the Baltic states at the outbreak of World War II. Her only comforts are her family, her artwork, and her hope that her furtive sketches and notes will be passed hand to hand until they reach her father and he'll escape from wherever he's being held to come find his family.

Lina's and Lithuania's story was totally new to me. I vaguely knew that Stalin's Soviet Union wasn't a great place to be, but had no real idea about the elimination tactics that he used. It's horrifying to think that in some ways this man was our ally - and yet he was using the same tactics as Hitler. Sepetys does an amazing job portraying the dehumanizing tactics used by the NKVD (the predecessors of the KGB) - it's gut churning and horrifying.

Lina is an amazing artist and Sepetys uses her artistic eye to add some beautiful language to a story of hardship and terror. Lina doesn't draw strictly realistic - she's inspired by Munch - which gives Sepetys many opportunities for perfect metaphors, like the snakes crawling out from the neck of one particularly horrid guard's jacket.

I read this book over the course of just one day - and not even a weekend. Even when I had to take breaks, my mind was still in the book. At one point I paused to eat dinner with my husband, and I felt a bit of guilt sitting down to a full hot meal when part of my brain was still in Altai, the first camp Lina is sentenced to. And then when I could get back to reading and reached the end of the book I was crying - almost sobbing. And I don't easily cry at books.

While on the surface Lina's story isn't terribly different from any other fictional Holocaust account, I still feel it's an important contribution to the genre of WWII titles. The writing alone makes it worth a read, but it's also important to remember that in most any conflict there are indeed shades of gray - that even while we may call someone an ally, that doesn't make them (or even us) perfect examples of our ideals.

Reviewed from an ARC picked up at ALA Annual 2010. Between Shades of Gray is available today!

Sci Fi Friday Review: XVI by Julia Karr

This has probably been one of my most-anticipated books of the year so far. What wasn't there to love about it? Dystopian SF that is actually feminist? So perhaps some of my ultimate disappointment comes from high expectations, but I'm pretty sure even if I'd gone in blind I would have come to a lot of the same conclusions.

All Nina Oberon wants is a totally normal, ordinary, boring life. Unfortunately, Nina is mere weeks away from turning 16 - an age all of her friends are eagerly waiting for, since they will receive their government-mandated tattoos and finally be "sex-teens," free to have sex whenever they want.

But Nina doesn't want to have sex. She doesn't even want a boyfriend. She wants to live in peace with her mom and little sister, and avoid her mom's skeevy boyfriend. But when her mother is mysteriously murdered, all of Nina's carefully laid plans are thrown out the window. With her dying breath, Nina's mother makes her promise to deliver a baby book to her father. The only problem: Nina's father died the night she was born. The truth about her father is one of many mysteries Nina must unlock, while trying to avoid her mother's evil ex, meeting a mysterious new boy, and trying to counter her best friend Sandy's increasingly sex-teen ways.

While the premise here is sound, it totally falls apart in the execution by committing one of the gravest sins in speculative fiction - failing to define the new world the readers are dumped in to. Many of the important aspects of this future society are left unexplained - most egregiously the importance of the titular XVI tattoos. Why on Earth is the government so invested in the sexual goings-on of teenage girls? And while I can easily come up with half a dozen reasons the tattoo is mandatory for girls but apparently not for boys, I'd really like to have seen at least the government cover story for the tattoo. Another under-explained point were the Female Liaison Specialists, or FeLS - we know it's really the only way for lower class girls to rise in rank and that they must be virgins, and we end up learning what the real purpose of the organization is, but the cover story is foggy.

Almost as bad, is the fact that I couldn't stand the protagonist. Nina is the worst kind of dystopian protagonist: the one that not only recognizes she lives in a dystopia, but coincidentally holds 21st century values and isn't afraid of telling us and anyone else that will listen why she is better than everyone else for her enlightened views. I don't know why she and Sandy put up with each other - Nina clearly is contemptuous of everything that Sandy finds important. Why would Sandy not only put up with that disdain, but consider Nina her best friend? Nina is also conveniently open minded about people from all classes - she doesn't have a classist bone in her body and goes out of her way to help homeless people, even when it means putting herself in great physical danger. Noble indeed, but very little textual support for having such a counter-cultural attitude.

Slang is a tricky part of any YA novel, and most SF in general, but Karr comes across as quite tone deaf when she makes one of the most-used slang words in the novel a 21st century slur against transgendered people. Really, there was no better way to refer to transportation as "transports" which is then shortened into "trannies"? It was especially disturbing when, before it was made clear what trans/trannies was short for, a character who's been in a fight is asked if he "kissed a trannie." It just made me really uncomfortable and kept pulling me out of the book (which happened quite often because damn do these kids talk about the various transportation options a lot). Please folks, if you're going to make up words for your book, do a quick Google search to make sure it's not associated with something else (do not Google "trannies" while at work - the first several hits are porn sites, which should be the first clue this wasn't the best word choice).

There's lots more I could critique here - including the mystical Asian healer stereotype and this being another entry in the trend of dystopian stories eliminating/ignoring homosexuality - but I think we'd be here all day.

The novel wraps up rather neatly, so I don't think this is going to be part of that growing trend of releasing dystopian stories in trilogies. On the one hand, there's clearly a lot of worldbuilding that could be expanded upon in a sequel, but on the other, all of the major storylines were wrapped up so neatly that there's very little actual story left.

Review: A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Fairy tale retellings have been popular...pretty much as long as I've been reading books. However, at least recently in YA, the re-tellings have focused on expanding the slight germ of a story from original sources like Grimm. They take a barebones story and expand it within its original fairy tale setting, like Princess of the Midnight Ball, or alternatively take the basic themes and set it in a totally foreign and modern setting, like Sisters Red. A Tale Dark and Grimm takes a slightly different approach, as it great adds depth to the original fairy tales while still maintaining the original spare-but-gruesome style.

Hansel and Gretel have a tough life, even in the original fairy tale, and Gidwitz ramps up the difficulty for them, giving them a father and mother who behead them in order to save the life of a beloved servant. When the children are put back together (it'd be an awfully short story if they weren't!), they decide they can't live with such awful parents, and set off into the forest to find new parents.

The first place they find is a cabin made of cakes and candies, where a kindly old woman lives and insists on feeding the children as much as they can possibly eat. Well, you probably know how this story ends. From here, Gidwitz retcons several more obscure Grimm tales in order to place Hansel and Gretel, either jointly or in solo missions, as the stars and heroes, with a narrator along for the ride that often interjects to let us know that the story is about to get darker and grimmer and bloodier and grosser and really any little kids in the room should have been sent to bed long ago.

This is a relatively dark and gorey book, but the narrator's presence really helps lighten the tone, even when he's warning us of doom and gloom. We know something bad is coming, so we can steel ourselves and be prepared. And really, even though Disney has bowdlerized a number of fairy tales, those can still get dark and creepy. The Wicked Queen in Snow White falls to her death (as does Mother Goethel in Tangled), the Beast is stabbed by Gaston and Mufasa is murdered by his own brother. While in A Tale Dark and Grimm bad things happen to the good guys, which can be more disturbing in some ways, I still never found it to be over the top.

Because the violence isn't the point of any one of these stories. While fairy tales were originally cautionary tales, the themes in A Tale Dark and Grimm are much more uplifting and aspirational about the meanings of love and family and kindness and sacrifice. These aren't warnings that good little girls and boys should stay out of the woods; these stories encourage recognizing the strengths and weaknesses in yourself and others, and being helpful and good whenever you can.

I absolutely loved that, unlike many classic fairy tales, Hansel and Gretel are equal players in this, and both get their fair share of adventuring and problem solving. Gretel really does get to wield that sword she's holding on the cover - no damsels in distress here! And speaking of that cover - it's absolutely fabulous, bringing to mind old woodcut illustrations. The design staff was clearly in communication with editorial when designing this cover, because everything there comes into play in the story eventually. Even that dragon!

Review: Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

So...it's music week on Bookish Blather!

Well, not really, since I don't have another music-related title for Friday, but I've sure gone through a bit of a music spell the last few weeks, with Janis Joplin, 50 women in rock songs, and now a high school hard rock band with a deaf manager.

When the winners of the local Teen Battle of the Bands put on a show on the school's front steps that literally sets their amps on fire, Piper is fascinated. In a moment of recklessness, she volunteers to be their manager, betting that she can get them a paying gig within a month. The move shocks her friends and family; Piper is a quiet student who doesn't know the first thing about music - and she can hardly hear Dumb anyway. Piper is profoundly deaf and can only hear with the assistance of the Barbie-pink hearing aids she's been saddled with since she was 6.

But Piper is determined to prove herself as a capable manager - and she's desperate for the money, any money, after she learns her parents have plundered her college fund in order to pay for the cochlear implants of her deaf baby sister. Home life is stressful with the new baby and the constant reminders that even as a toddler Grace can hear more than Piper ever will - so Piper is willing to do anything and everything to get Dumb the publicity they need so she can restore her college funds and escape to the elite Gallaudet University with its extensive programs for the deaf. But the members of Dumb aren't always willing to play nice - members are alternately apathetic, diva-licious, angry, shy and outright incompetent. Piper has her work cut out for her as she tries to meld the five distinct flavors of Dumb into one harmonious sound.

I love pretty much everything in this book. For one thing, it doesn't follow the "standard" band storyline I've seen in so many movies. You know how it goes - band experiences sky rocketing fame, then falls into the temptations of sex, drugs and rock and roll, before diving into a self-destructive spiral that only ends when everyone hates each other and/or someone is dead. Instead, Dumb starts as dysfunctional - they only know three songs, and they're all covers. The band consists of a lead singer, a bassist, and a guitarist who only knows three chords. So first Piper recruits a drummer. Then the lead singer insists on bringing the school's resident hot chick into the mix - even though she has no discernible talent. It's a complete and absolute mess all around, but Piper - driven by desperation for money and approval - keeps on going.

Piper is far from perfect. She is not Inspirationally Disadvantaged, nor is she the Disabled Snarker or any number of other tropes for the disabled that pop up often in the media. Yes, Piper is deaf, and this has clearly profoundly affected her life. Sometimes she's bitter about it - or at least bitter that her sister is able to benefit from her treatment in ways Piper never could have. She's clearly not a saint, and pulls some really crummy moves in her desperate attempts at achieving stardom for Dumb. She is the very definition of a well-rounded character, and it's wonderful to watch her grow as a character throughout the story.

Five Flavors of Dumb also gets major bonus points for the subtle "Girl Power" message. Dumb ends up with two female band members, and they absolutely don't get along initially - but it's also because one doesn't respect the other's ability, not out of any catfighting scenario. And the two band members and Piper end up banding together at a crucial moment to offer each other support. John doesn't call explicit attention to these moments, but I've seen so many stories where girls have superficial friendships, or no female friendships at all, that's it's just fantastic to see these complex relationships play out in a totally natural way.

More bonus points, coming from this non-music person: John weaves a mini-lecture on the Seattle music scene into the story. Seattle, of course, has been home to some of American music's most influential players, and Piper is introduced to two of them via a mysterious scavenger hunt: Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix. The scenes that play out around the search for Hendrix's childhood home are especially moving.

And I know this review is getting long, but one last comment - what an AWESOME cover! It totally embodies the rock and roll feeling of the novel. I have so much love for this one, I'm surprised that I only found out about it through my library's "Teen Scene" newsletter - usually by the time that arrives in my mailbox I've read or requested every title! So thanks, Queens Library, for pointing this one out!

Review: The Turning: What Curiosity Kills by Helen Ellis

Found via: Forever Young Adult

When I was 12 years old, I received my first Animorphs book (#2, The Visitor) in my Easter basket. Did my mom choose it because it was excellently reviewed, popular science fiction with a diverse and engaging cast of characters?

No.

She picked it out because there was a girl turning into a cat on the cover, and I liked cats.

Since the Animorphs books aren't being re-printed until Spring 2011, I think 12-year-old-me would be getting The Turning: What Curiosity Kills for Christmas 2010. And the girls-turning-into-cats thing isn't even the only bit these two books have in common.

Having been adopted into an elite Manhattan family at a young age, all Mary wants to do is fit in. While her sister Octavia is outspoken and brash, Mary attempts to be normal and unassuming in every way possible - even if that means the boy she's crushing on hardly knows she exists. When she starts feeling tired all the time and having weird cravings, Mary can write that off as a growth spurt. But what about her sudden dislike of running water? And an amazing sense of smell? Oh, and the thick patch of orange hair that sprouted on her leg after a run in with the neighborhood stray?

Mary is far from normal, it turns out. Bit by bit, she's transforming into a cat, at a time when there's a bit of a power struggle happening between different cat factions in New York City - and each side wants Mary to join them, when all Mary wants is to return to her normal life. Enlisting the aid of Octavia, who has some excellent research skills on top of her sauciness, Mary desperately searches for a way to end her turning before there's no turning back.

So aside from turning into a cat, what does this book have in common with Animorphs? The length. This book goes at a ridiculously quick pace, and it's one of the few stories that I wish were a hundred pages longer just so everything can be slightly more fleshed out. There are lots of details that are glossed over - like there are bits where cats will speak to Mary, with their dialog indicated in italics. It's never explained whether these cats are psychic and are putting fully formed phrases in Mary's head, or if maybe Mary is just translating cat behaviors into human speech. The ending is also quite abrupt, which is no problem if the next installment is coming out in a month or two, but leaves us hanging in the worst way when the wait between titles is indefinite (Google revealed nothing about book 2 of The Turning and Helen Ellis' website isn't the easiest to navigate. I'm not a fan of video blogs). This isn't a book with a cliff hanger ending - the climax finishes and then...the end. No denouement, no closure, and no real indication of what could happen next.

Octavia has gotten some blogger love, as she well should. First of all, she's a debate geek, and while I technically didn't do debate, forensics was debate-adjacent, so I love that about her. At first she comes across as a horrible sassy-black-girl stereotype, but Ellis does an excellent job of revealing why Octavia presents herself the way she does. Very interesting.

Also thought it was interesting that both Mary and Octavia are adopted. At first it's totally random and seems like it's just a way to put two non-New-Yorker characters (Mary is originally from Alabama, Octavia from Nebraska) in the big city. So far it hasn't added a lot to Mary, but again it adds some real depth to Octavia's character, as the girl who appears to totally have it all together does in fact have some deep rooted insecurities tied to being adopted.

This is a fun, short read with an interesting twist to the ever-expanding genre of fantasy and paranormal creatures taking over YA. Not a book I'd necessarily run out to get, but certainly fun once you dive in.

Sci-Fi Friday Review + Giveaway: Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Yeah, you read that subject right! To kick off October right, I'm jumping in with a PERSONALIZED, SIGNED copy of Jonathan Maberry's new YA zombie novel Rot & Ruin! Read through my review to find the details at the bottom.

Set 14 years after the dead first began to rise, Benny Imura is 15 and has to choose his career quickly, before the town cuts his ration allowance in half. Benny looks into pretty much every half-decent job in town (and even a couple that are less-than-decent), all hoping to avoid the inevitable: joining the family business and becoming his brother's apprentice. What does his brother do?

Kill zombies.

Benny and his older brother Tom have a complicated relationship - as in Benny does little more than tolerate his older brother, who is totally uncool in comparison to the bad-ass zombie bounty hunters that tell tall tales filled with daring and adventure to entertain the kids. But when Benny runs out of other job options, he reluctantly begins training to join his brother in the field - and learns that there's a lot more to zombie hunting than just whacking zoms.

When Jonathan was talking about the novel at Sunday's Books of Wonder event, he noted that zombie novels are never about the zombies - the zombies are metaphors and catalysts for change. I think rarely has that fact come through as clearly as it does in Rot & Ruin. This is not a book about zombies. This isn't even really a book about zombie hunters. It's a book about brothers, about family, and about what it means to be human. There's lots of philosophy in this book - not the heavy sort that put me to sleep in college, but this is definitely a book that asks readers to think.

That's not to say there isn't any zombie killing action in the story. In fact, there's quite a bit, and Benny is often in the thick of it, even though he's not a trained bounty hunter yet, which adds to the drama - often he's armed with nothing more than a bokken. 


Placing the story within one generation or so of the onset of the zombies was an excellent idea. It's far enough that people realistically have some knowledge of the zombies (what will make a person return, how to kill them, what attracts them), but it still makes sense for some of the history to have to be explained to someone like Benny who was barely a toddler when the outbreak again. While some scenes were heavy on the exposition as older brother Tom explains the ways of the world to Benny, the reason for the exposition never felt forced; it just could have been trimmed a little. Also, Tom spends a bit too much time congratulating Benny for asking great questions; there certainly could have been a little more showing rather than telling.


I also have to give a major shout out for the multi-cultural cast. Tom and Benny are Japanese-American - which explains the affinity for Japanese weaponry (Tom uses a katana when fighting with a blade - remember, blades are quieter and don't need reloading!). A quick rundown of the heritages of other characters is given at one point as well - a doctor born in India, another man from Oaxaca, and Vietnamese and Chinese characters as well. While the zombies are a more-or-less uniform shade of gray, the living characters are vibrant and represent the real diversity found in the contemporary United States.


I know a book, especially a zombie book, is resonating with me when I can't wait to finish it so I can go work on my own novel. I've been toiling for ages on my own zombie novel, and I find my biggest inspiration to get back to writing is to read another great book. In this case, I'm not inspired because I think I have a superior take on zombies - rather I'm just excited about some day adding my own bit of input into this rich genre, and I get excited by what other people are adding along the way.


While you're waiting for the next book in the trilogy to come out (Dust & Decay), I highly recommend you check out Jonathan's website. There's a great interview up right now with Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead Tossed Waves) and Alden Bell (The Reapers are the Angels - which I hadn't heard of before! Amazon doesn't list it as a YA novel, but the protagonist is 15, so you can be sure I'm trying to get my hands on it now) giving their thoughts on all things zombie.


GIVEAWAY


This is the part you're waiting for, right?


After my Fall releases post last week, I got a lovely e-mail from Jonathan offering up a signed copy of Rot & Ruin for giveaway here on the blog! After responding that yes, I would love to host a giveaway, he upped the ante on his offer: not only will the book be signed, but he'll personalize the book for the winner! So instead of just his signature, the book will be signed just for you!


The contest is going to run for one week - I'll announce the winner on Friday, October 8th.


How to enter? Leave a comment in this entry with your e-mail address. And just to make this fun, answer the same question I posed to Jonathan and the other panelists last Sunday: do you prefer fast zombies or slow? 


The winner will be chosen randomly - as in my last giveaway the question is just to make the entries more interesting - and I'll send Jonathan the winner's e-mail address so the two of you can work out signing and shipping details. 

Review: The Snowball Effect by Holly Nicole Hoxter

The first line of the jacket copy on this book made me thing I was in for a quirky-dark family comedy of sorts "18 year old Lainey Pike can tell you everything you need to know about the people in her family just by telling you how they died." Death is serious, of course, but am I the only one who finds that to be a mildly amusing way to introduce the topic?

I've always had a morbid sense of humor.

Lainey's family is unconventional - she hardly knows her older half-sister, Vallery, as she spent most of her life living with her dad. Her younger brother, Collin, is adopted and has behavioral issues ranging from being on the autism spectrum to ADHD. The three are thrust together to make a new family after their mother kills herself in the basement laundry room.

Lainey is angry and confused. At her mom. At her sister. Even at her long term boyfriend, who is kind and sweet and loving, even with Collin. But the end of high school marks a major life transition, even when half of your family hasn't dropped dead, and Lainey is wondering whether the path she's always had set before her is where she belongs.

Lainey and Vallery are definitely the best developed characters in the book. I kind of got frustrated with how little time was devoted to Collin - he's the whole reason Vallery comes into the story after all. His behavioral and/or developmental issues make communication difficult, but really no one, not even his teachers (who are trained to deal with emotional and developmental difficulties), questions whether his behavior may stem from grief and/or abandonment issues? The boy was adopted as a toddler, so he was in the foster care system for awhile before being adopted, and in short order his adoptive father and mother die violently (motorcycle accident and suicide by hanging). It seemed like sloppy character development, or lack thereof - throw in a character with a disability so the disability can stand in place of a personality.

On the other hand, I loved Lainey's romantic turmoil, between her long-term safe and stable boyfriend, and the rugged, drifter new guy she meets at the 7-11 when she doesn't have the cash for a Slurpee. What's great is Hoxter doesn't give us any easy answers - this isn't the classic love triangle with Lainey pining between the two boys. There's ambiguity here in the relationships and Lainey's feelings. So much YA ends with the lead couple declaring their undying love for each other - and while I don't doubt people feel that way at times, it seems like Lainey's dilemma must be more common.

Review: The Lighter Side of Life and Death by C.K. Kelly Martin

Found via: Good Books & Wine

Books about relationship and sexuality often look at first love from the girl's point of view, carrying on the old trope that girls are interested in love and boys are interested in sex. So after reading April's review about this "gripping portrayal of growing up and burgeoning sexuality for a teenage boy, my curiosity was definitely piqued!

Mason Rice, 16, is on top of the world. The school play has just finished, emotions are riding high for everyone, and on the night of the cast party he sleeps with one of his best friends, Kat. Life is perfect, right?

Until school on Monday when Kat starts avoiding him. She won't return his calls and eventually confronts him in the hallway, telling him it didn't mean anything and they should just forget it ever happened. Oh, and his other best friend, Jamie, isn't too happy either - he had a crush on Kat and is convinced the whole evening must have been less-than-consensual with the way Kat is acting.

With his feelings hurt and ego a little bruised, life at home isn't any easier, as his dad's girlfriend and her two kids are moving into their house. With home no longer a refuge and his two best friends not talking to him, Mason befriends a friend of his new step-aunt - Colette. Beautiful, witty - and 23 years old. As Mason tries to forget the broken  heart Kat left him with, he dives into the forbidden with Colette, determined to enjoy this relationship for as long as it lasts.

It was interesting to see a slight role reversal between Mason and Kat here - Mason is the one who is convinced their sleeping together means he and Kat can finally have a relationship, while Kat is the one saying he should forget about it. However, it's only a slight reversal because it becomes pretty clear that for Kat the evening did mean something; she just doesn't want to face what has changed.

Mason and Colette's relationship on the other hand is pretty hot. They're definitely in a weird place - 16 years old is definitely underage, but Mason doesn't seem to be coerced into the relationship, and initially pursues Colette. Of course, she could have/should have said no, but it's certainly not presented as a weird abusive relationship. Colette isn't in a position of power over Mason (not a teacher, coach or even close family friend), so there's no weird power dynamics in play, either. On the other hand, as an adult it's also a little weird to read the relatively explicit sex scenes between the two, because in the back of my head I'm going "He's 16! I don't care how hot he is!"

This is a book that expects some maturity from its readers, and I absolutely love it for that. The book presents several relationships that are outside of the teen romance norm, and doesn't pass judgment on any of them. It's up to the reader to interpret these relationships as healthy/unhealthy, positive/negative or somewhere in between. This is the type of book that is considered "dangerous" by some adults because it doesn't present a black and white view of the world - and that's exactly why books like this need to continue to be written.

Sci-Fi Friday Review: The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June by Robin Benway

Way back in December 2008, when I decided I wanted to start blogging the books I was reading, the very first review I posted was for Robin Benway's Audrey, Wait! I loved that book and was totally unable to put it down, so I was excited when I saw during ALA that Benway had a new book coming out, The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June. Even more exciting? It's definitely a worthy follow up to Audrey, Wait.

April, May and June are sisters that are about as different as can be. April is serious and studious, May is more than a little goth and hates the world, and youngest sister June is bubbly and cheerful and on a mission to be Popular as they start the school year at a new school. It's been four months since their parents divorced, uprooting the girls to move to a new school with their mom while their dad takes off for Houston, Texas.

On the same day that their dad is going to leave, the sisters appear to spontaneously develop extraordinary powers. April can predict the future, May turns invisible, and June can hear people's thoughts. As far as super powers go, not the most exciting - but it's terrifying for April when she starts having visions of June at the site of an accident. And if hot-headed May gets excited or upset, body parts start disappearing at random. Only June seems adept at her power, using the shallow thoughts of teenage girls to turn them against each other and put herself in position to befriend the most popular girl in school.

As Uncle Ben says, with great power comes great responsibility - but to whom? Is it okay to use someone if it means keeping them out of a vision of a horrible accident? Is it immoral to follow your mom invisibly on her first date? What about following your little sister to a party? And just how reliable are these powers, anyway?

Growing up with sisters isn't easy under the best of circumstances - will these new abilities pull them closer together, or drive them apart?

The story alternates between the points of view of the three sisters, and I knew about two lines into May's first chapter that she and I were going to be BFFs. She's delightfully snarky and has maybe a dozen lines in the whole novel that aren't sarcastic. She's also got some serious problems, too, being the one that feels most abandoned by her dad.

I also thought youngest sister June was really interesting. How terrifying for your littlest sister to be the one who can read your mind at will! She's also determined to be popular, something neither of her sisters understand, and probably comes closest to using her powers for evil when she uses the private, catty thoughts of popular-girl Mariah's best friends to turn Mariah against them, leaving the perfect opening for June to take their place. I also really liked June's descriptions of other people's thoughts - an excited girl was glittery, while a stoned guy's brain was too smoky for her to even read. She also ends up improving her vocabulary throughout the novel, thanks to sitting next to someone who mentally practices constantly for the National Spelling Bee.

I had some issues with when and where the girls would discuss their newly found powers. There's an extended conversation in Best Buy when they're first trying to figure everything out - not exactly a secluded place. There were also some frustrating hints about the origins of the girls powers, but I think the frustration was intentional - it's implied that the girls' grandmother and great aunts had powers as well, but since their mom has never mentioned it nor shown any sign of powers herself, they never ask for more information. So the girls don't know any more than we do and since the whole novel wraps up pretty neatly, I doubt there's going to be a sequel where we get an origin story. Unless it's a prequel about the grandmother and her sisters. That'd be awesome.

In-depth, meticulous science fiction this is not, but if you want a family drama with a great trio of sisters at its core with a sprinkling of science fiction/fantasy elements (since it's not explained where the powers come from it could ultimately go either way), The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June is the way to go.


Reviewed from an ARC picked up at ALA. The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June will be released Tuesday, August 3rd!

Review: Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

After a failed attempt to read the werewolf romance of the moment, Shiver, I shrugged off the burgeoning werewolf genre as not-for-me. Then along comes Sisters Red which is pretty much a bad ass book all around. Yay, werewolf hunters!

Scarlett March has two missions in life: hunt werewolves and protect her little sister, Rosie. Luckily for Scarlett, fulfilling one mission usually involves fulfilling the other, as the Fenris hunt pretty young women like Rosie. Ever since a werewolf attacked and killed their grandmother when they were little, an attack which also took Scarlett's eye as she was even then protecting her little sister, Scarlett has been determined to exterminate the Fenris, and she has the scars, both literal and figurative, to prove it.

Rosie knows she owes her sister her life. Scarlett has sacrificed so much, even her own eye, that Rosie feels becoming a hunter like her sister is a small price to repay her debt. It isn't that Rosie dislikes hunting, in fact she's quite good at it and knows that without her many more girls would be horrifically murdered every month, but Rosie has never had the chance to discover if she even likes to do anything else. And now, back on the scene after a year away from hunting in order to visit relatives, Silas Reynolds is stirring up all sorts of complicated feelings in her young heart. Silas is Scarlett's hunting partner, or was until he left and Rosie took over, but does that mean he can never mean something to Rosie?

Silas is back just in time, as the Fenris packs seem to be congregating, concentrating their hunting efforts in a way the March sisters have never seen before. And there's whispers that they're looking for the Potential - the one man they can bite and turn into another werewolf, so long as they an find him before the next full moon. Silas and the March sisters know this is an unprecedented chance to hunt lots of Fenris at once, and maybe even learn more about how they increase their numbers - but that's about all they know. Hunting and killing werewolves is one thing, but learning how they tick might just be beyond even their formidable capabilities.

This is a book that uses the alternating POV chapters method really, really well. Rosie and Scarlett are so different that even though they're telling the same story, it's almost like we get two different genres. Scarlett's narration gives me the action and adventure story I love, while Rosie gives us a sort of paranormal-romance look at the same basic plot. I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

I also love that these sisters have a real love and affection for each other, even when they don't understand each other. Even when Silas is in the picture, and the story threatens to go into love-triangle territory, the girls stay focused on their primary mission and the importance of their relationship with eachother.

Scarlett is far and away my favorite character, reminding me so much of Rachel in my beloved Animorphs books as she struggles with her warrior identity, but Rosie is no slouch and in fact had two of my favorite moments in the book. I don't want to give too much away, but when Rosie was trying to outsmart a whole pack of werewolves, she had me on the edge of my seat and cheering for her solution. And if this ever becomes a movie, I cannot wait to see her tango scene -it's such a small moment in the book, but the visuals and the soundtrack could make it awesome.

In some ways this is a very sexual book, but without actually ever showing any sex. Pearce has taken the Little Red Ridinghood story, with its warning about girls wandering alone and implications about male sexuality, and seamlessly put it in a modern setting. The methods Scarlett and Rosie use to attract the werewolves - perfume, fancy shampoo, flowing hair and the infamous red cape - could be the jumping off point for a long thesis for a lit or women's studies major. I have to admit, after writing my review for Flow, this is one of the books I was thinking of when wondering why we don't see more periods in YA lit. It seems like when you're dealing so blatantly with sexuality, a woman's period would affect how a werewolf sees her. And the girls are so short on cash you'd think someone would bitch about the price of tampons (because I always cringe to think of how much I'm spending on something that is made to be thrown away, and I don't have to pawn off my grandmother's valuables to make rent). The book covers a whole month, so surely one of them would have had a period!

But seriously, awesome book, and I can't recommend it highly enough! Two companion books are on their way, riffing off of different stories (Hansel & Gretel and the Little Mermaid). I hope to see more of Rosie and Scarlett (ESPECIALLY SCARLETT), but I'll take what I can get!

Review: Grease Town by Ann Towell

Found via: April at Good Books and Good Wine



So the cover here for Grease Town is in some ways the opposite of all the white-washed covers we bloggers have been decrying. As April pointed out in the review that brought this book to my attention, it looks like it's going to have a black protagonist, but in fact the narrator here is a young white Canadian boy who befriends a young black boy.

Tired of living with his prim and proper aunt, when Titus hears his big brother, Lem, is on his way to work in Canada's prosperous new oil fields, Titus is anxious to join him. Of course, since he's just a kid there's no way he'll be allowed to go - so he stows away in Lem's wagon, hoping he'll at least get far enough away that it'd be impractical to send him home once he's discovered.

In the hardscrabble town of Oil Springs, it takes hard work and more than a little bit of luck to stay afloat. As the grown men are focused on striking it rich with oil, Titus meets and befriends Moses, a black boy around his age. On the outskirts of Oil Springs is a small community of rundown shacks and lean-tos that house the black workers, many of whom are escaped slaves from the United States. As the US is fighting its Civil War that will decide the fate of slavery, race relations are tense in Oil Springs as well as local ne'er-do-well John Longman starts stirring up trouble by accusing the black workers of driving down wages and taking jobs that should be going to whites. As tension and anger rise in the community, Titus finds himself torn between defending his friends, and taking the path of least resistance by staying out of the way.

As a US citizen, my history classes tended to ignore the rest of the world when something major was happening in the US, so I honestly have very little idea what was going on in the rest of the world while we were fighting the Civil War (except that there was an English governess in Siam). It was interesting to see the racial tensions that were playing out in Canada on the frontier, and how a few troublemakers can easily make these tensions explode into something much more dangerous.

On the other hand, this was such a short book that sometimes the race relations parts felt shoehorned in. Moses only shows up a few times, and really we're told more than shown how close he and Titus are, so when Moses and his family are in danger I didn't react as emotionally as I felt I would have if we'd actually seen more of the boys' friendship. Instead, Moses disappears for large chunks of the text while Titus deals with Lem and Uncle Angus and their budding romances with the house's kitchen girl and the town's school teacher respectively. This makes it feel much more like a period family drama at times until the final act when the racial tension finally explodes.

Note: I'm including this in the African American tag, even though it's set in Canada, because Moses' family are immigrants from the US.

Review: Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson

Found via: Publisher's Weekly 4/12 and Reading in Color



During the June Bloggiesta, one of the tasks I assigned myself was to tally up how I was doing with the various reading challenges I'd signed up for during the first Bloggiesta back in January. To my surprise, I was already almost finished with one - and reading Toads and Diamonds means I've now read the 5 fairy tale re-tellings I signed up for with the Once Upon a Time challenge! Of course, the challenge was for "at least" five books, so I'll continue to keep track of what re-tellings I read, but Toads and Diamonds will certainly remain one of the highlights of this challenge!

Based upon the Perrault story The Fairies, Toads and Diamonds is set in a fictional India, where society is sharply divided between the ruling class of the Believers and the native followers of the twelve. Diribani and Tana are stepsisters, living with Tana's mother after Diribani's father, a successful jewel merchant, has died. The family is living in poverty, having already sold most of their valuable possessions to keep even the cheapest rice on the table.

Everything changes one day when, after a long and tiring trip to the local well, Diribani meets a poor beggar woman who requests a drink of water. Diribani kindly gives the poor woman a drink, who then reveals herself  to be one of the goddesses the Believers worship. She bestows upon Diribani a gift - that whenever the girl speaks precious jewels and beautiful flowers fall from her lips. Diribani rushes home to share her gift with her family. When Tana is sent back out to the well, she stumbles upon the goddess who this time presents herself as rich and beautiful. When Tana hesitates before answering the goddess' question, she is given the gift of speaking snakes and toads. While not as glamorous as the jewels, snakes are revered by the Believers, so Tana is mostly unconcerned - until she realizes that deadly cobras are among the snakes she may make appear.

It doesn't take long for the girls' talents to be discovered. A prince is drawn in by Diribani's beauty and jewels, and offers her refuge in his palace from the local governor who considers her a witch. The governor, who has set a bounty to encourage the locals to kill all of the snakes in the land, also wants Tana killed, but the prince intervenes as well, proposing that Tana live outside of town near the temple, where the snakes will harmlessly slither into the forest.

But even with the protections of royalty and solitude, respectively, the sisters aren't entirely safe. Political intrigue is afoot as different factions jockey for power, and a powerful plague is waylaying much of the population, causing widespread death and famine. As Tana witnesses the cruelty people are capable of, Diribani finds herself isolated in the Believers palace, constricted by customs and morals she doesn't subscribe to, even as she's lulled into a false sense of security about her safety. Did the goddess truly bless the sisters with gifts? Or were they cursed?

The fictional India Tomlinson has created is extremely rich in culture and mythology. Setting up a society that reveres snakes definitely puts a twist on Perrault's tale (where originally it was the arrogant sister cursed with snakes and frogs). She includes an author's note at the end that makes it clear that the two religions she created are fictional, though she did draw from the wide variety of faiths that are celebrated in India today.

The story is told through alternating chapters, as Tana and Diribani spend most of the book apart. Tana's half is more of an adventure story, as she travels the countryside and discovers the extent of the local governor's greed and the results of his shortsightedness. Diribani spends most of her story sequestered away with the rest of the women of the royal court, as the Believers keep women separated from men whenever possible and veiled when the genders must mix. These scenes with the court women gave several examples of the book passing the Bechdel test as Diribani and the court women, including a princess, learn about each other's cultures - including Diribani teaching them the fascinating court dancing that combines dancing with self-defense.

It was wonderful to read a fairy tale story set outside of the traditional European style, that also wasn't focused on romance. While each sister does have a love interest, they are a small part of the story, and the romances blossom in an organic, well-developed way. There is no fairy tale "love at first sight" here - the relationships are built on mutual respect and interests.

Review: The Mysterious Howling (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place Bk 1) by Maryrose Wood

Found via: Bookends

Lynn and Cindy had me when they said this is "A Jane Eyre riff for the middle reader." Jane Eyre is one of the few classic novels I managed to actually finish reading while in college (the other was The Scarlet Letter). While I had some problems with the novel, I figured those problems wouldn't be showing up in a middle grade novel! And I was right. What does show up? A charming protagonist thrust into an impossible situation with more mysteries than she knows what to do with!

Penelope Lumley has just graduated from the Swanburne School for Poor Bright Females and is on her way to her first governess position at Ashton Place. Penelope was intrigued by the advertisement as it called for a young lady who worked well with animals. Penelope goes in thinking she might find a stable filled with ponies - and instead finds three feral children howling in the barn! Lord Frederick found the three children while hunting and has taken them home as trophies, naming the children Alexander, Beowulf and Cassiopeia Incorrigible. He placed the ad for a governess, hoping the children will be presentable to society in time for Christmas. The lady of the manor, Lady Constance, isn't so sure about this whole plan, but is going to try her hardest to make the best of the impossible situation, managing three wards, a governess and a husband who is far more interested in going out hunting then spending time with his new wife. Armed with a top notch classical education, Penelope gamely rises to the challenge - and doesn't even let herself be too disappointed when she realizes she has to teach the children how to wear clothes before she can start teaching Latin.

The omniscient narrator is a perfect blend between sounding very 19th century and also very 21st century. The narrator knows the reader isn't familiar with all of the details of Penelope's world and explains them quickly and humorously. The conversational tone, however, was very similar to Jane Eyre and the like. The narration also takes plenty of jabs at the 19th century governess novel genre, including Penelope shuddering at the thought of falling in love with the lord of the manor as she's imagining what life in Ashton Place may be like.

The three Incorrigibles are hilarious. They were raised by wolves and even after Penelope starts working with them, they only manage a tenuous grasp on English. The youngest, Cassiopeia, never quite masters pronouns and constantly refers to herself as "Cassawoof," making me giggle every time.

There are plenty of mysteries in this book - some of which are answered during the novel, and others which are only hinted at, setting up the series nicely. There's a complete story here, but I definitely want some more answers and look forward to the next book!

Review: Split by Swati Avasthi

Two novels titled Split came out this March. Originally I intended to review them together in a Double Review, but these two are soooooooooooo different, it would have been the most disjointed post ever. So instead the reviews are being posted back-to-back; look for my review of Stefan Petrucha's Split tomorrow.

16 year old Jace has grown up with an abusive father - but it wasn't until his older brother Christian moved out that Jace was actually a direct victim. He grew up watching his mother and older brother be beaten viciously - and when he finally stepped in to stop an attack on his mother, he was kicked out. With nowhere else to go, Jace turns to Christian, who has moved out to New Mexico and essentially cut all ties with his family - even changing his name to escape his father.

Christian isn't prepared to be Jace's guardian, but agrees to give it a try, despite living only in a crappy one bedroom apartment and working long hours as a doctoral intern. They're both supported by Christian's girlfriend and next door neighbor, Mirriam. In fits and starts, with plenty of wrong moves by both of them, the brothers re-establish a relationship and try to move forward, even as the violence of their past continues to haunt them and re-emerges in unexpected ways.

This is a totally different look at domestic violence and physical abuse than I've seen in YA novels before. Jace and Christian's father is a total bastard - and yet is a judge and seen as a pillar of the Chicago community outside of the family home. Avasthi doesn't pull any punches, describing the manipulative depths this man goes to, even before he raises a fist. Absolutely chilling.

I also loved that Jace is a complex character. He's not a saint. On the same night that he's kicked out of his house, he smacked around his girlfriend, and even after he's in New Mexico his first reaction in many situations is violence of some kind. It's terrifying to see someone who is in otherways a good kid be so influenced (unwillingly) by a negative force like his dad. Christian also has some great nuances, and it's interesting to see how two kids who grew up in the same household could turn out so differently - and yet also have some very basic similarities.

If I'm being vague, it's only because getting to the hearts of these characters is the real draw of this novel. While both Christian and Jace have girlfriends (or potential girlfriends), the story is about the two of them, and while their relationships with women clearly play a part in defining them, this is about the story of two brothers, and if I explained too much about what makes them tick it would take away from the reading experience!

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Recommended by Cindy who sold me on it by saying "Humor, grief, sexy bits"

I apologize profusely for taking so darn long to post this review. This was the first thing I read back during the read-a-thon, having only a quarter of the book left to finish at the beginning of the day and desperately needing to finish it before I started on anything else. Why has it taken me so long to write this review? Because the read-a-thon was when my books read to books reviewed ratio started to get skewed and I just lost track of this one for awhile.

But no longer!

Lennie and Bailey are sisters who've been inseparable for as long as Lennie can remember. Abandoned by their mother when Lennie was only two, they've grown up with Gram, an artist who only paints with the color green and grows the most beautiful roses in town, and Uncle Big, a man in love with love, and they've been a content, if idiosyncratic, family for years.

Until Bailey dies suddenly of an arrhythmia. Lennie feels like she's lost without her beautiful and talented older sister around. Gram and Big both fret over Lennie, trying to support her while also letting her heal and grieve in her own way. To add to Lennie's disorientation, she finds that after a lifetime of indifference to boys, sex is suddenly on her mind all of the time, leading her alternately into the arms of her sister's boyfriend and the handsome new French boy in her music classes, in an attempt to reconnect with the world again.

I should note that Cindy's full recommendation of this read "Humor, grief, sexy bits, a reefer smoking uncle and a painter gram (who is made of awesome) and random poetry, a forest bed and band geeks. Doesn't get much better." I couldn't agree more, and that one sentence really does sum up all of the wonderful aspects of this novel. All of the characters were beautifully drawn, even the adults (who often get the short end of the stick in YA books). I love that Uncle Big still loves the idea of romance after five divorces, and fully believes that the roses Gram grows cause people to fall in love.

The snippets of poetry throughout the novel are absolutely inspired. Each chapter begins with a piece of Lennie's poetry written on any number of found objects - receipts, coffee cups, park benches - if she can leave her words on it, Lennie will find a way.

Lennie's relationships are absolutely heartbreaking and totally real. Sometimes she isn't the easiest person to like, because the rational part of my mind says making out with two different guys and lying about it is uncool, but at the same time my heart was breaking for her - Lennie has lost so much in her life, is it so wrong that she wants all of the love she can get at this time?

Definitely one of the top books of the year - you absolutely have to seek this one out!

Review: The Great Death by John Smelcer

Found via: Notes from the Horn Book Jan. 2010

Two things caught my attention that made me pick this book up: Native Americans and a survival story about girls. Oh, and the setting isn't some Wild West trope; instead it's 1917 Alaska. So, three things.

Millie and Maura are sisters living in a quiet, out of the way village in Alaska. They rarely have contact with anyone from other villages, let alone non-natives, so when a white man visits their village one day, the girls (and everyone else) are fascinated.

And then an illness sweeps through the village. One by one, everyone in the village succumbs to a smallpox epidemic, leaving only Millie and Maura untouched. As winter approaches and the girls are alone, they know they must start walking, hoping to find shelter in either the next village, or in the small city that has popped up down the river. They gather as many supplies as they can carry, and set off on the treacherous trek, relying on the skills their father taught them, hoping they can make it to safety before the worst of the winter strikes.

Author John Smelcer's website claims that this is a young adult novel that can be enjoyed by all ages, but it really feels more like a middle grade novel, and it has some stylistic quirks that I don't think will be ignored by the average older reader. While there is some interesting survival information included, I found the narrative style made it difficult to tell whether it was the girls or the narrator who was giving us this information. The book seems to be written in a third person limited view for most of the story, focusing on Millie the older sister, but every once in awhile we'd jump to Maura's POV, and then we would learn stuff that I don't think the girls could have told us, like just how many degrees below zero it is outside. Their survival gear was listed when they set out, and a thermometer wasn't mentioned!

Millie and Maura are definitely a believable pair of sisters. Millie is resentful that she always has to take care of Maura, but she certainly loves her sister. Maura for her part can be whiny, but once it's just her and Millie she pulls herself together for the most part. Both of their faults come out occasionally during their journey, which made for a richer story - just because you're suddenly in danger doesn't mean your personality is going to do a complete 180. Maura is going to complain and Millie is going to get angry, but because they're family and they love each other they get over it and focus on finding their way to safety, even when it seems impossible.

While I was searching around for some other reviews on this title, I uncovered a bit of a controversy around the author. Apparently Smelcer insinuates he is of Native ancestry when in truth he was only adopted by his Native step-father. I encourage you to read that blog post and the comments, as they have some interesting thoughts on cultural appropriation and definitions of race.

Knowing about this controversy, however, doesn't really change my thoughts on the book. It's an enjoyable enough story, though the narrative style left me feeling quite distant.

Review: Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet by Erin Dionne

Found Via: Publisher's Weekly 1/25

Y'know, for someone that doesn't like Shakespeare all that much, I end up reading a lot of books where he or his work features prominently. I think it's because it's about the only way I get to read stories about theater - since Shakespeare's all public domain, the author can quote at liberty and the stories are well enough known that you don't have to summarize the story. Also, I do happen to very much like A Midsummer Night's Dream, so even though the main character here is named for a very different play, Midsummer plays a prominent role.

Hamlet wants nothing more than to be normal - which is really hard to do when your parents are Shakespeare scholars who insist on dressing and speaking in Elizabethan style and her younger sister is such a super genius that at the tender age of 7 she'll be starting 8th grade with Hamlet. And then, of course, there's that name. At least younger sister Desdemona ended up with something feminine.

So Hamlet's life is tough enough before it's announced that Shakespeare will be the focus of an interdisciplinary study in history and English this year. In history they'll construct replicas of the Globe theatre (conveniently, one of her dad's hobbies) and in English they'll be performing scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream, where it's discovered that Hamlet is a superb Shakespearean performer and is assigned the role of Puck against her will.

Adding to Hamlet's horror are her two nemeses who quickly befriend Desdemona, who can't see that the older girls are just using her for her brain. Hamlet's crush hardly seems to know she exists, and her best male friend is apparently harboring a major crush on her, which is weird. And somebody keeps leaving origami pigs in her locker, which is weirder. Eighth grade is definitely turning out to be a total tragedy.

At first I was a little put off by just how weird Hamlet's life can be sometimes. I've had some college professors that were hugely into their subjects, but nobody was dressing up in period garb and then showing up at their daughters' school unannounced. But then I decided to read this as an all-out farce, and everything fits much better.

The parental obsession with Shakespeare aside, I did like Hamlet's family relationships, even though they're often dysfunctional. Hamlet often feels like she's ignored and standing in the shadow of her genius little sister. Her parents ask Hamlet to make sacrifices to accomodate Desi's schedule, and when things get broken at home it's automatically assumed that Hamlet (or one of her friends) must have done it, because Desi's too perfect. Lots of siblings will be able to relate to that!

The romance is well handled as well. Hamlet has a major crush, but that doesn't overshadow the rest of her life. The secret admirer is fun, and the best friend crush is horrendously and delightfully awkward.

Double Review: A Faraway Island by Annika Thor & War Games by Audrey & Akila Couloumbis

I have a huge backlog of books to review, and it looks like both of these titles have been on my radar since before I started taking notes of where I was finding books. ~sigh~ But I can tell you that A Faraway Island won the 2010 Batchelder Award as the most outstanding book "originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States."

Why did I pair these two books together for a double review? Because they both share new (to me, at least) stories of the atrocities of World War II. It is both amazing and terrifying that 60+ years after that war, there are still stories to be told and discovered.

A Faraway Island was originally published in Sweden in 1996, and is the first in a series of stories about two Jewish sisters from Vienna, Stephie and Nellie, who have been sent to Sweden for their protection. Their parents are still in Austria, trying to secure documentation for the whole family to flee to America. Despite assurances that the sisters would live together, Stephie and Nellie are split up: Nellie lives with a warm family with other children and a kind foster mother called Auntie Alma. Stephie on the other hand is sent to live with Aunt Marta, a cold and stern woman who decorates Stephie's bedroom with a picture of Jesus and seems quick to anger. Stephie and Nellie have to adapt to their new lives as refugees, learning a new language and culture, in addition to the usual trials and tribulations of growing up. As their stay in Sweden grows longer and longer, Nellie easily slips into the ways of her new country, calling Auntie Alma "Mom" and speaking more often in Swedish than German, while Stephie despairs of ever getting home.

In a lengthy author's note, Thor explains that while Stephie and Nellie are fictional characters, she based their stories on extensive interviews with former refugees who have made their lives in Sweden since WWII.

Most of my problems with the story stemmed not from the plot, but from the writing. It often felt stilted, which could easily be written off as a translation issue. I thought the greatest strength of this book was a small, almost throwaway moment that had a huge impact for me. One of the questions that always comes up in discussions of the Holocaust is how could no one know what was happening? From our position 60 years on, knowing the horrors of the concentration camps, it seems like they would be impossible to ignore. When Stephie is trying to get the adults to cooperate and find a way to get her parents into Sweden, one person expresses their doubt that Germany would actually be shooting and incarcerating its own citizens. It's a brief moment, but perfectly illustrates the complete ignorance most of the world had regarding what the Nazis were truly capable of.

War Games also covers an aspect of WWII I had no previous knowledge about: the occupation of Greece by Italian and German forces. Petros lives in a small village, mostly insulated from the rest of the war in Europe. Italian forces have waged battles with the Greek army nearby, and the economy is in a state of freefall, but otherwise life continues as normal for Petros. Until his cousin Lambros, a member of the army, stumbles to his house, bloodied and bruised, with a dire warning: the Germans are coming. While Petros' family isn't Jewish, they do have significant American ties having lived in America for many years. Petros' father orders the family to hide or destroy anything connecting them to America, just in time for the Germans to arrive and decide that the family home will now be housing a German commander. Petros and his older brother Zola become determined to resist in any way they can, right under the enemy's nose.

This is another book based on a true story, with many of the experiences taken directly from Akila's childhood in Greece. The authors condensed many events so they all took place at the beginning of the occupation, rather than spread out over several years. There are lots of great characters here, probably because they are all based on Akila and his family. Petros and Zola's sibling rivalry is well done, so that even though there's a lot of antagonism between the two, when push comes to shove they look out for each other.

Some of the aspects of war are briefly touched upon, but are mostly ignored in favor of focusing on the more exciting resistance plot. It's mentioned a few times that they're worried about friends and neighbors reporting the family to the Germans for being American or for hiding Lambros, a known resistance member, but nothing really comes of those fears. When the commander does show up, Petros spares only a few thoughts for how nice he can be before moving on. I would have loved for the story to be a bit longer to allow for a chance to explore more of the ambiguities of the story.

Review: Fat Cat by Robin Brande

Found via: Galley Cat

Oh boy, do I ever have conflicting feelings over this title. I'm not sure exactly what I expected from this (it was starred in my Google Reader before I'd started keeping track of what I was looking forward to reading and why in my TBR spreadsheet), but for every time this book scored a hit, there was another glaring miss that had my literally cringing.

Cat has one goal for her Special Topics in Research Science class - come up with a project so awesome she'll beat the pants off of Matt McKinney, her rival since the seventh grade. Cat thinks she has the perfect plan: replicate the diet and lifestyle of early hominids as closely as possible, and observe the results, using herself as a test experiment. Minimal electricity usage, walking instead of driving, and eating only the foods that would have been available to homo erectus. A killer project with a side bonus: Cat is sure she'll look fabulous by the end of the school year.

What she doesn't count on is suddenly becoming something of a boy magnet. And not just any boys. Hot boys. Athletic boys. Boys that seem to be making Matt more than a little jealous. Not that Cat cares what Matt thinks; he betrayed her terribly back in the seventh grade, and finally having a science project that beats him at the science fair will be worthy payback.

But living a la homo erectus isn't always easy, and navigating the murky world of boys and romance is difficult for anyone. The pressure is rising for Cat, not only to keep up with her project, but to keep the boys at bay long enough for her to truly heal her broken heart.

Okay, yes, that broken heart bit makes me gag a little bit too, but it's a running theme throughout this book.

Let me get the cringe-inducing moments out of the way so I can end on a positive note, okay?

First of all: almost all of the boys in this book suck. Brande gives us two guys who date Cat who don't understand the meaning of "no." Which is okay on the surface - it gives the story dramatic tension and it's good to see that Cat knows exactly where her boundaries are and knows how to say "no." But then her best friend comes along and doesn't care that these boys don't respect her boundaries. One boy grabs Cat's rear end in the hallway, and she forcefully tells him to knock it out. He does it again and she shoves him against a locker (which made me cheer). But when he comes back with a flower and begging for forgiveness, not only does Cat accept but her best friend tells her she really needs to give the guy another chance.

The best friend, Amanda, is actually the source of a lot of my tension with the novel, because while she is funny and smart and a great poet and seems to love Cat, she's also super annoying and lacks some fundamental respect for Cat. She repeatedly tells Cat that she's going to grow up to be a bitter old hag if she doesn't date in high school and constantly lures Cat away from the tenets of her science experiment. If it had happened once or twice I would have overlooked it, but Amanda never seems willing to compromise her plans for the sake of Cat's experiment; instead it's always Cat trying to rationalize breaking her own rules. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Because most of the time I really liked Cat. She's unapologetically smart and knows what she wants in life (well, as much as you can really know at 17). I loved it when she said early on in the novel that dating was not what she wanted to do right now - she wasn't ruling out the possibility of romance and love and marriage in the future, but she doesn't feel she needs to rush into things. Also, over the course of the novel, she becomes much more athletic, and revels in it:

Because there was a time in my life, before Willie Martin pointed out how fat I was, that I would have known I could beat those two people and anyone else in the pool. Maybe not an Olympic swimmer or someone twice my age with longer arms and legs, but definitely someone my own size, Willie Bleeping Martin included.

Because I was good. Really good. I was a strong girl, and I loved my sport. I loved competing (203).

I also liked how Cat's weight was handled in the novel. The only specific sizes we are told is that she would one day like to be a size eight and her rapidly shrinking bra size. We don't see anyone shame Cat for her weight except for episodes in her past like from Willie Bleeping Martin, and we're never told what her weight or jeans size is before or after the experiment starts. I thought it was a tactful way to avoid shaming or embarrassing a reader who is larger than a size eight.

I really enjoyed seeing how Cat's experiment evolved over the course of the novel; there were some interesting scientific theories proposed. Of course, I also felt sometimes that the reader was being lectured about nutrition through Cat's dietitian. Also, WTF, dietitian, saying that cutting out pop and chocolate will reduce acne? Because I'm pretty sure that myth has been debunked. I really hope the rest of the science in the book wasn't flawed like that, because there's some interesting stuff in here.

So Fat Cat gets points for having a smart, athletic, not-skinny protagonist, but loses a lot of points for her unhelpful best friend. I think what was most disappointing about that best friend is that one of Brande's books made the 2008 Amelia Bloomer Project list. While Cat definitely has some feminist cred, the boys and Amanda combined cancel out those positive points.