Kiss of Broken Glass ~ Madeline Kuderick review [@HarperTeen @kuderickwrites]

Kiss of Broken Glass
Harper Teen
September 9, 2014
224 pages
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Madeleine Kuderick’s gripping debut is a darkly beautiful and lyrical novel in verse, perfect for fans of Sonya Sones and Laurie Halse Anderson. Kiss of Broken Glass pulses with emotion and lingers long after the last page.

In the next seventy-two hours, Kenna may lose everything—her friends, her freedom, and maybe even herself. One kiss of the blade was all it took to get her sent to the psych ward for seventy-two hours. There she will face her addiction to cutting, though the outcome is far from certain.

When fifteen-year-old Kenna is found cutting herself in the school bathroom, she is sent to a facility for mandatory psychiatric watch. There, Kenna meets other kids like her—her roommate, Donya, who’s there for her fifth time; the birdlike Skylar; and Jag, a boy cute enough to make her forget her problems . . . for a moment.

Kuderick's debut novel is the story, told in verse, of fifteen-year-old Kenna, a cutter, who has been Baker Acted. Now under a seventy-two hour psychiatric hold after being discovered cutting in the school bathroom, this is Keena's first time under observation.

Though, Kiss of Broken Glass is short, it works because it is told in verse. Verse novels are not something I usually seek out (while I don't avoid them, I don't specifically look for them, either) but this book's premise appealed to me.

Kuderick does a really fantastic job in her debut novel. Her poetry is very lyrical and seems to choose just the right words and breaks for maximum impact. Readers will get to know Kenna and the others at the facility; they'll learn why Kenna started cutting and see how much a part of her life it has become.

You also see the makeup of Kenna's family and how it may have impacted her decisions.

Despite the short length of Kiss of Broken Glass, it is full of brilliant characters, relationships, emotion and tells Kenna's story beautifully. Things do not get all wrapped up in a tidy, little bow, but that fits with the honest, real feeling of the story. (A feeling only enhanced when one reads the Author's Note.)

This is author, Madeline Kuderick's first novel and I hope to be able to read more from her in the future.



Another book you may also enjoy: Purge by Sarah Darer Littman

Isla and the Happily Ever After ~ Stephanie Perkins review [@PenguinTeen @naturallysteph]

Isla and the Happily Ever After (Anna and the French Kiss #3)
Dutton
August 14, 2014
339 pages
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Anna and the French Kiss review
Lola and the Boy Next Door review

Love ignites in the City That Never Sleeps, but can it last?

Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on introspective cartoonist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to confront the challenges every young couple must face, including family drama, uncertainty about their college futures, and the very real possibility of being apart.

Featuring cameos from fan-favorites Anna, Étienne, Lola, and Cricket, this sweet and sexy story of true love—set against the stunning backdrops of New York City, Paris, and Barcelona—is a swoonworthy conclusion to Stephanie Perkins’s beloved series

Stephanie Perkins writes some fantastic contemporary romance YA noels. The series started with Anna and the French Kiss and continued with (possibly my favoritest of favorite books) Lola and the Boy Next Door and now concludes with Isla and the Happily Ever After. Though it is  a 'series,' each of the books can be read as a standalone. The main characters from the previous book(s) do appear and are a part of the new characters' lives, so new readers won't have the backstory.

While both Anna and Lola were very realistic, great romances, Isla and the Happily Ever After felt a bit less fairy tale. The characters are still perfect, mainly because they have flaws and are not perfect. There is still the falling in love that will make you fall in love with the characters.

But there's also difficult moments, the characters struggles with their relationship, each other and, even, themselves.

Isla drew me in right from the beginning. I love that when the story starts, she is not quite herself. Yet, if she had not been in such a state, things never would have happened as they did and such a perfect setup could not have taken place. I was immediately pulled into Isla's story and her life. Her friendship with Kurt, her issues with her sister, her crush on Josh all come together to make her a very realistic character, person but still cooler and more interesting than most.

From the beginning Isla and Josh's romance is the kind that you want to read about, that you dream can actually happen. Yet, there were moments when I was not sure how I felt about them together (and because of that, how I felt about the book). There were times when it was hard to know if this thing they wanted and you, as a reader, wanted was really what they needed.

In spite of those moments of indecision - or possibly because of them - I really, really enjoyed Isla and the Happily Ever After. I hate that there won't be any more stories with the SOAP students but I couldn't be more pleased with how Isla and Josh's story happened and how it all concluded. (Okay, maybe I could if there had been some sort of bonus Lola and Cricket epilogue but I just love them that much.)

The Cellar ~ Natasha Preston review [@SourcebooksFire @Wattpad]

The Cellar
Sourcebooks Fire
March 1, 2014
347 pages
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Nothing ever happens in the town of Long Thorpe – that is, until sixteen-year-old Summer Robinson disappears without a trace. No family or police investigation can track her down. Spending months inside the cellar of her kidnapper with several other girls, Summer learns of Colin’s abusive past, and his thoughts of his victims being his family…his perfect, pure flowers. But flowers can’t survive long cut off from the sun, and time is running out….

The Cellar by Natasha Preston, first published on Wattpad, is a very enjoyable thriller, mystery. It is also an example of not judging a book by its first few pages. The weakest part of the novel, definitely, was the very beginning. In those first few pages, we do meet Summer, her boyfriend and her family. It's a necessary introduction and one where we get a very good sense of her relationships, but it did not flow very well.

Right after that introduction, though, is when Summer is taken. It is then that the story greatly improves. Her abductor elicits an almost immediate feeling of tension, of something not being quite right - in both Summer and readers.

The alternating view points move the story along quickly. We are able to experience not only what Summer is as she's held captive, but to know what's happening in the lives of other in the story. We know what's transpiring in the search for Summer and we also get glimpses into just who Colin is.

These different narrations give us insight into the full world of The Cellar and also help in amping up the tension and suspense. We can see how desperate her family and boyfriend are to find her, while also getting more of a look at her captor and how he conducts himself. You end up hoping that they will succeed and find her while worrying over just what damage he is capable of inflicting.

There are also little flashbacks with the different characters that give us more background on who they are and a better idea about their interactions. While I did like these little glimpses into the past, they made the timeline more confusing. The 'present' of the story is told using dates within each characters narration; the date (ex July 24) is listed and then '('present'). With the flashbacks, however, a year is given (ex 2005). If you were reading this on Wattpad a few years ago, that would all work. Now, though, it doesn't add up. Either the flashbacks should have said 'x years ago' or the now needed to be 2010.

It was not a big thing but several past bits happened before one that made it clear that the present was not 2014. The scenes I'd already read took on a whole new meaning when they were four less years ago.

The Cellar is full of suspense and mystery. It will keep you anxiously turning the pages until you reach the end.


Rating: 8/10


Other books you might also enjoy: The She Disappeared by April Henry and The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

When We Wake ~ Karen Healey review [@kehealey @lbkids]

When We Wake
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
March 5, 2013
304 pages
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Sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl living in 2027—she's happiest when playing the guitar, she's falling in love for the first time, and she's joining her friends to protest the wrongs of the world: environmental collapse, social discrimination, and political injustice.

But on what should have been the best day of Tegan's life, she dies—and wakes up a hundred years later, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened.

The future isn't all she had hoped it would be, and when appalling secrets come to light, Tegan must make a choice: Does she keep her head down and survive, or fight for a better world?

Award-winning author Karen Healey has created a haunting, cautionary tale of an inspiring protagonist living in a not-so-distant future that could easily be our own.

Somehow, I missed When We Wake last year when it was released. Luckily I found it last month when looking at the sequel, While We Run, out the 27th.

When We Wake is a tale of two futures, 2027 and 2128. The story moves from a future not that different from the present, to  a dystopian future for both readers and main character Tegan.  After waking up, Tegan finds herself in quite a different future: technology has advanced, but so have global warming and hot button political issues like immigration.

As Tegan struggles to adjust to not only that she is alive - and the same age - a century in the future, she sees things about 2128 that most people native to that time period never notice.  As she takes it all in, she sees the things from the past that have affected the current day and the things that have not changed.

Tegan's 2027 character and her friends were involved in political protests and rallies, making her character in the future even better. She was aware of more facts and effects than a lot of teenagers would be. When the after-effects of things that are part of not only 2014 but also 2027 life are presented in 2128, it definitely gives something to think about.

The 2128 future, in addition to being thought provoking, is incredibly realistic and believable. It might be easy to look at things in the present and guess that they'll affect the future in a negative way. Yet, the 'how's Healey comes up with are perfect and unpredictable.

Tegan does have some adjusting to do, but much of it deals with her interpersonal interactions, how they're affected and the new social norms she has to understand.

The cast of characters Healey has created is fantastic. With great diversity when it comes to religion, race, etc it's a fresh approach. The diversity among them gives a fuller picture of the future and helps Tegan not be the only 'other' character. I love that they're all very well developed characters with their own background and/or story who add to the picture of Melbourne in 2128 and who impact Tegan's tale.

Then, of course, there's the question of whether Tegan's being brought back was everything they told her . . . or something else, something ore.

When We Wake is a great start to the series, full of revelations that will leave readers anxious for While We Run out later this month.



Rating: 9/10

34 Pieces of You ~ Carmen Rodrigues review

34 Pieces of You
Simon Pulse
September 4, 2012
336 pages
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A dark and moving novel—reminiscent of Thirteen Reasons Why—about the mystery surrounding a teenage girl’s fatal overdose.

There was something about Ellie... Something dangerous. Charismatic. Broken. Jake looked out for her. Sarah followed her lead. And Jess kept her distance, and kept watch.

Now Ellie’s dead, and Jake, Sarah, and Jess are left to pick up the pieces. All they have are 34 clues she left behind. 34 strips of paper hidden in a box beneath her bed. 34 secrets of a brief and painful life.

Jake, Sarah, and Jess all feel responsible for what happened to Ellie, and all three have secrets of their own. As they begin to confront the darkest truths about themselves, they will also find out what Ellie herself had been hiding all along...

(synopsis found on Goodreads)

34 Pieces of You was quite a bit different than what I was expecting, but not any less good.  It is reminiscent of Jay Asher's Thirteen Reason's Why, but less emotional and wrenching in many ways. This isn't due to the skill of Rodrigues versus the skill of Asher as a writer, either. The tone that 34 Pieces of You takes is quite different from that of Thirteen Reasons Why.

Despite Ellie being the 'you' in the title, the novel is mainly focused on the other characters - their relationships after Ellie's death -- both with each other and with others -- how Ellie was a part of their lives and impacted them before her death. Ellie's a character in 34 Pieces of You but she is the 'you' not an 'I.'

The narrative moves between the before, the after, the earlier before and the later after, not in a linear fashion. It not only makes for interesting reading but it was really great to see how a character was from the point when everything started (Ellie's death), follow them later, then see how they had been, and then see how they later were as well. I enjoyed it much more then if we had started before Ellie's death, followed through until she died, past that until the end. It made the character development so much better.

I love, love books where characters and their relationships are done well and this is one I adored. It didn't have the emotional impact -- at least until the end, for me -- that I was expecting and the notes were a smaller part than I expected but I that was all okay. It was okay because that wasn't the book this was.

What 34 Pieces of You *was* was a book looking at Sarah, Jake, Jess, and even Tommy and Lola and how Ellie and her death (and life) effected them.  They way that Carmen Rodrigues wove their lives and relationships together was fantastic. Character A might be one thing to Character B but then they were also this other, unexpected thing to Character C -- and, maybe, something small to Character D, too. They were a small group of teenagers, most of whom had spent the last several years growing up together, and the way their lives intersected felt very real and true.

As I said, the book as  whole was not quite as emotional as I was expecting (given the subject matter). There was a particular part, close to the end, however that I really, truly felt connected and I was glad those characters had that moment.

I very much enjoyed 34 Pieces of You and look forward to more from Carmen Rodrigues -- and recommend this one!


Rating: 9/10



 

Dark Companion ~ Marta Acosta review

Dark Companion
TorMacmillan
July 3, 2012
368 pages
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Jane Williams has spent the last decade i foster care, the last four in a group hone. Now, at sixteen, she's found a way out, one born of a mixture of luck and hard work.

Not always the good girl, a combination of circumstances showed Jane the alternative - and gave her something to work towards. Her somewhere better? Birch Grove Academy for Girls, a full scholarship. Away from the violent, inner-city neighborhood Jane's used to and so different from the underfunded school, Birch Grove seems like a dream come true. Jane will even have her own living quarters, a cottage on the school grounds.

But is Birch Grove everything it's made out to be. Is there something nefarious afoot at the school or is Jane, so unaccustomed this sort of life seeing things where there's nothing to see?

It should be an ideal school for Jane - who loves science - it has all of the newest equipment, the best teachers and the students are welcoming. The headmistress is welcoming as well, ready to have Jane over for dinner - but it's her sons, the gorgeous Lucky and Jack who's on her bad side from moment one - who she can't seem to stay away from.

When Jane finds out more about Lucky's recreational activities, just why Birch Grove is so secluded and cut off from the outside world and learns the possible fate of the last scholarship student, will her idea of her new school change?


Dark Companion was touted as a paranormal read, but the paranormal element never really came to much fruition. There was a side aspect, with Jane -- hopefully this isn't spoilery -- that was the most paranormal element to the tale. The main story line, that seemed it would turn paranormal stayed just on the precipice of paranormal, but never quite tumbled off it.

That part did disappoint me a bit, possibly because I'm also reading Marta Acosta's Casa Dracula series (a vampire series) and expected something different here than what I got. If I hadn't been expecting a paranormal, things may have been different, but I was.

What Dark Companion does do really is establish Jane's life pre-Birch Grove. Her life in foster care isn't used to make her some 'other' to the Birch Grove students, or not solely for that. She has a real past there. It creates a great reason for her going to Birch Grove in the first place, but it also sets up really nice parts of her character an personality that come into play later in the story. Actions Jane, reactions or thoughts she has wouldn't work if she was a character coming from an average family or background.

I also really enjoyed Jack's character. There are smaller things about him that we learn through other characters, or that are brought in when Jane's not even paying attention or is too busy disliking him. He has a lot of depth and fits well into the story.

It may have been personal preference, but I disliked Lucky and I disliked Jane liking - or being so infatuated, actually, with Lucky. I understand her background, yes, but I just don't do well in books with girls who can't get enough of guys who are not nice to them. I didn't feel that we saw some inner struggle with Lucky to redeem his other actions enough for me to like him. Except for one scene he was a jerky character and I wanted to knock Jane on the head. (Sorry!)

Jane, otherwise was a great character. She had a lot of depth, she didn't immediately do anything (Lucky feelings excluded), she had uncertainty, she tried to stay true to herself even when she wasn't quite sure just who that was.


Rating: 6/10

Save Me ~ Lisa Scottoline (audio) review

Save Me
St Martin's Griffin
February 14, 2012
416 pages
10:57:36 (WMA audio version)
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Rose is one of the volunteer lunch moms at her daughter Melinda's school on the day it happens. Lunch moms are there to help during lunch time, keep an eye on the kids, but Rose is there to keep an eye on Amanda, the girl who's been teasing Melly for the birthmark on her face. They've already moved once for the bullying Melly's endured and Rose wants to put a stop to it this time.

Rose has been talking to Amanda - after Melly's fled the lunch room following a particular incident - when the school kitchen explodes.

Now, she's faced with a gut wrenching decision, does she go to the bathroom where Melly's is and save her daughter or save the girls she's with right now, the ones bullying her daughter . . . and leave her daughter?


She only has a split-second to make her decision but Rose thinks she's managed to save all of the girls. That's why she's gobsmacked to find out one of the other girls does have injuries - life threatening ones. The girl's family and soon the whole town blame Rose, claiming she chose to save only her own daughter.

With the threat of legal action hanging over her head and now a pariah in her own town, it's up to Rose to find out the truth behind the fire and the explosion, and to clear her name.


Save Me is the third Lisa Scottoline book I've read - well, listened to - following Look Twice and Come Home. While all three have very different plots, they are each about mothers whose children are somehow threatened - at least to start - and they then see just how far they'll really go to save everything. To save their families.

With Save Me I knew, approximately what I was going to get, in terms of the plot - the strong emotion, a mother very devoted to her children, a father who would likely give a lot of push-back, an ending that would not drop a lot of hints that made sense until the ending was revealed (and possibly even then). That's what I wanted, though. There are times that I love to go into books knowing absolutely nothing about what I'm going to get and then, sometimes, I like books where I kind of already know what I'm getting.

I do enjoy that the though the broad strokes of Scottoline's Chick Lit books (vs her legal thriller, Rosato & Associates series which I have yet to read) are so similar, the characters and the story lines make them quite different. (I enjoyed Look Twice more than Come Home but may have enjoyed this one more than either of them.)

All of her Chick Lit books are hailed for their strong female characters and while I can't quite put my finger on why - they do fight hard for their children, they're not meek - I wouldn't think of them if asked for strong female characters. I don't know if they don't seem well developed enough or if it's my own bias and the more melodramatic books and thus characters lead me seeing them otherwise.

Save Me isn't an epic work of literature, no, but it's a good read with good characters. Rose is put in a tough situation - one where it's easy to see her side of things and the side of the other family (if not always the entire town). Scottoline does a great job of revealing enough information as the story goes, about either side so that while Rose stays the protagonist, it's never a one sided story.

The audio version of Save Me is recorded by Cynthia Nixon (from "Sex & the City") who does a graet job and its easy to 'see' her as Rose, the almost 11 hour audio book is very enjoyable. With 89 chapters, there are a lot of breaks, too, so it's easy to keep your place.


Rating: 7/10


Other Books You Might Enjoy: those by Jodi Picoult and those by Diane Chamberlain


Click one of the below images to be taken to
Save Me's Amazon page where you can
 purchase the Audible version - or go here to
search for it on Overdrive you library(ies)

Not My Daughter ~ Barbara Delinsky review

Not My Daughter
Doubleday
352 pages
January 5, 2010
Amazon


Inspired by both the pregnancy 'pact' (though there apparently never actually was one) in Gloucester, Massachusetts and Sarah Palin's daughter being pregnant during the campaign, Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinksy is the story of teen pregnancy through both the girls' eyes and their mothers'.

In this story, the girls--the seemingly smart, college bound Maine high school best friends, Lily, Mary Kate and Jess all become pregnant as part of a pact. This, of course, throws their mothers Susan, Kate, and Sunny (also best friends) for a complete loop and they were sure they'd done all they could to raise good girls. Add in that they're in small, conservative New England and that Susan is the high school principal who herself got pregnant as a teen and drama abounds.

Told through the different points of view of the three mothers (and their fourth best friend Pam and some from the girls), Not My Daughter follows the developments of the girls early pregnancies, the families being told, the town finding out and the ramifications of not only teen pregnancies in a small town but the HS principal's daughter being one of them.


I read Not My Daughter because Elizabeth Scott rated it on Goodreads and it sounded like something to give a try (and I've seen Barbara Delinsky's name & books but never read any)--and the Lifetime movie The Pregnancy Pact was going to be on, too. And while this book was compelling and certainly kept me up reading it to find out just how things were going to turn out, it also disappointed.

I'm not sure if my feelings about it are because it's written more for someone that could have teenage children/daughters than someone who just was sixteen...Or if that has nothing to do with it. But, I feel like the story was almost sanitized to make parents feel better.




AND HERE BE SPOILERS


There was a lot of talk of whether or not it was the mothers' fault that their daughters got pregnant with the end decision seeming to be that they were good mothers and the girls just made this choice regardless (there was more to it, more why but still the 'you raised them well and then they did this'). I'm not sure I completely bought that, though. Not to say they were bad mothers, but to me, saying how they were raised had nothing to do with it was wrong. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but when you're 17, if you make a conscious decision to get pregnant, how you were raised had something to do with it. Enough with that point now ;)

I also didn't quite accept that all of the parents were so 'Okay, you'll keep that baby and we'll pay for it and that's that." I know one mother had more trouble accepting her daughters pregnancy than the others (still didn't seem like a whole lot) but there was still never any talk of anything other than the girls all keeping the babies. It was just 'no abortions or giving my baby away,' I don't think anyone even mentioned that there are open adoptions. And fiction's fiction for a reason, even if a tiny percent of teens put their baby up for adoption, maybe one of them in the story could have.

That paired with Lily's 'my baby's this big now and has intestines' every other page made if feel kind of like a conservative take on things (with the abortion's evil, I'll keep my baby stance). It might have just supposed to have been her being happy about being pregnant but it seemed overdone.

I think overall it just seemed too happy, easy. I know that Susan had trouble with her job and one of the girls had some trouble with her baby for a bit but overall it seemed like: the girls plan to get pregnant, they're ecstatic about it, they tell their families, that goes generally well, their families agree to provide for them and their babies, grandparents, moms and babies are all good and everyone's still a responsible parent.





I know it's not a deep book or anything, but I guess I expected more out of it than that.

END SPOILERS


I think my other problem with the story was that everyone seemed to reach their conclusions or have things happen at the same time. You'd read one girl telling her mother she was pregnant, then the second would and then the third would...bam, bam, bam. Then later in the story there'd be some sort of conflict and magically one character would reach some sort of revelation and then next chapter the second character would reach the same and then so would the third.

It would have made the story more enjoyable if even two of the three characters would have done something and there would have been either a time period or an event between that and the last character reaching the same point. Having different characters going through (even slightly) different things all reaching the same points at the same time became too predictable.

While this book wasn't all I thought a book on this topic could be, I don't think I'm sorry I read it. I am trying to get my mom to read it to see if she thinks differently about it than I do and I might read another of Barbara Delinksy's books sometime to see if it's this book I didn't quite like or it's her style that doesn't work for me.





6/10

Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall ~ Wendy Mass review

Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall

Little, Brown Young Readers

256 Pages

November 1, 2008
Paperback

Amazon

I forgot this was written in verse when I first checked it out of the library-I just remembered that I had looked at it at B&N but not bought it for some reason. I'm pretty sure this is the first novel written in verse that I've read.

Now, onto the review: Tessa doesn't duck when the dodgeball comes flying at her head in gym class. Instead she thinks about how her thighs look in her gym shorts, Ashlee Simpson lyrics flit through her mind...but she doesn't duck.

She doesn't duck and she wakes up in the mall. Or what looks a lot like the mall where both of her parents work and where she's spent countless hours of her life. Just like A Christmas Carol, she's going to need a guide, of course: enter Nail Boy.

As the story progresses the stores in the 'mall' are used to teach Tessa lessons through different stories of her past. Each chapter title is a store name.

I'm going to be honest right now: I didn't particularly like this book. It wasn't that I exactly disliked it, I just didn't really like Tessa. I understand that she's supposed to be an imperfect character and that the little tales of each chapter are supposed to show her (and us) the wrong decisons she's made in life and why she's who she is, but I just didn't like her.

I thought she was ditzy and kind of stupid and the things she did growing up/through the book became more than 'learn from them' things. She was the kid that if you found out what she was doing not only would you not be friends with her, you'd want to tell on her because she didn't really have a good reason-she was just a bad, jerky kid.

(See, I didn't like her--she wasn't sympathetic for me.)

The choices of the 'events' in the book were interesting, though...like in 13 Reasons Why (but for very different reasons) it's shown how random, seemingly insignificant events can really impact things. There's also one particular thing that I thought fit in the book very well and was also the first time I've seen it in a book yet and I'm glad that it was used (because I believe it fit--but I'll keep it a secret, it's a real world event so if you read it, you'll know).

The other thing I couldn't stand: Nail Boy? Yeah, he had a drill bit in his head. A drill bit looks like a screw so if you want Tessa to not know it's a drill bit, then at least let her call it a screw--but not a nail because a nail is smooth, straight up and down. (And maybe she could have gotten that wrong, but because she could not have, screw would have been a compromise, right?)

So, for the book...it was well written, the stories worked out well and the whole mall as a sort of heaven idea is really interesting....but I just can't get past really not liking the main character.

6/10

Bookworm Readers' review (she liked it more)

Conversations with My 13-Year-Old Self ~ Pink After the Afterlife ~ Chad VanGaalen Lonesome Day ~ Bruce Springsteen

13 Reasons Why ~ Jay Asher review

13 Reasons Why
Razorbill
October 18, 2007
304 Pages
Amazon
(and it's $10.97 on Amazon right now which I believe is less than it's been...)

Maybe you've been lucky and not had to deal with suicide at all...and in a way I have been, but there was also a year where a girl my brother'd been in classes with for two years killed herself (they're pretty sure it was at least partially because of some anti-depressants she'd started). Then within the following school year a girl in the grade behind me commited suicide and I think one other girl as well (I was in the hospital that fall, my memory of then's kinda sketchy). Suicide's one of those things that's not contagious, of course, but if it happens once it's more likely to happen twice and the more likely to happen three times...

I know that fall I wondered 'why' numerous times. We lived in a good area, had great schools, people said the girls had friends/were their friends, they seemed happy... But obviously somethign wasn't right.

And isn't that the question we all ask? Whether it's a friend or someone we hear about on the news or a celebrity or our neighbors' cousins' boyfriend..when someone kills themself, you wonder 'Why?'

And that's what 13 Reasons Why is all about. One day Clay arrives home to find a taped up shoebox with no return address sitting on his doorstep; inside he finds a series of cassette tapes. The tapes are filled with the voice of Hannah Baker, Clay's classmate and crush, who commited suicide several weeks before, explaining what-and who-led to her death...essentially 'why' she commited suicide.

This is one of those books that was always just sort of around, I saw it at B&N, at Target, I saw it on everyone and their mother's blog but I never felt like reading it (I know I even picked it up once or twice at Barnes & Noble). I'm not sure if it was the subject matter that kept me from reading it (I didn't feel like reading about suicide?) or what but finally it was on one more persons blog and I decided to just read it already--and then the two libraries I can get books from had it due back in November and the people kept it till December...

I am so, so glad I finally did read this book. The back flap states that Jay Asher got the idea for the book while listening to one of those audio tours at a museum and thinking about how the womans's voice was in his ear but she wasn't there...and I think that really did carry over into the book because instead of being creepy or trite or anything else it could have been, having Hannah really narrate so much of this book, was...endearing?

It was a story where I knew the whole time that she was dead and that this was just a fiction book so there wasn't anything more to it but I wanted there to be someway for her-and Clay-to have a happy ending at the end. I really wanted to just shake some of the other people... Because it was told after the fact, you just knew that nothing could be done about the things that were happening and that made things all the more heartwrenching--but that much better, too.

I hope that people will read this book and see how they can't stop the 7th person or the 12th (did I ever say that there are 13 people who will get the tapes? oops), maybe they'll recognize some things that we can all do in real life to not be that 7th person. Because we might not do something that's bad enough to on its own, but I think 13 Reasons does a great job illustrating how everything we do adds up...and can be Why.

This (like Such a Pretty Girl) is another book that I think would be good for schools to read because it's a good subject matter to be discussed but also enjoyable writing/something that you'd read for pleasure unlike so many school chosen books.


10/10

(Amazon's pictures for the book have the map that's part of the story--is that with the book if you buy it? like I said, I got it from the library so it was all plastic sealed..)

I hope that's an okay review for you Stargirl-I really did love the book :)

Zombie Blondes ~ Brian James review

Zombie Blondes
Feiwel and Friends
240 Pages
June 24, 2008
Hardcover
Amazon


Henceforth to be known as the Miley Cyrus Zombie Book (you'll get it if/after you've read it--the why's spoilery).

Hannah and her father pack up their car and move every few weeks or months, whenever their money woes catch up to them. This time it's to Maplecrest a small--yet ghost-like--town.

Hannah has the moving thing down, who is who in the schools: who the jocks are, the 'it' girls, etc but is this school like all the others? Her new friend Lukas sure doesn't think so. Sure, the cheerleaders-Maggie, Morgan, and a few other M named girls are making her life hell but there's no way the town's anything other than an annoying small town with a hateful group of girls. Right?

My thoughts on this book? I liked the whole zombie premise--it's why I wanted to read the book after all. But I did feel like there wasn't really anything new in the book. Hannah starting the new school went much the same way about any story of a girl being the new girl goes: she knows no one, things suck, one person immediately befriends her, a group of popular girls make her life hell. I don't really have a problem with that 'formula' (as unrealistic as it may be) as long as it's a set up to something else better...

I didn't think it was, though. This book felt like a lot of tell and not a lot of show. There seemed to be a whole lot of Hannah's recollections (even to begin current happenings) or just Hannah telling things...the actual events of the book seemed to be limited. There were also too many similes for my taste (I had to return the book to the library before I could get quotes and Amazon's search won't give me any, but searching 'like' I get 190 returns; not all will be similes but there will be some with 'as' so...).

There was a scene towards the end that I almost felt like te rest of the book was written just to have a story for that scene... and a few things didn't really work out for me but maybe I wasn't reading as carefully by then as I needed to so I'll admit that could be my fault and not the books.

I'm really not sure how much of how I feel about this book is perhaps a dislike of the writing style or if it just doesn't work regardless of liking the style or not. I'm going to rate it based on my opinion, though, (I do try normally to rate on the plot/storyline/characters/etc moreso than the style because that's so much more subjective)...

6/10

Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty ~ Jody Gehrman

Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty

Dial
(April, 17 2008)
256 Pages
$16.99 (hardcover)
Amazon

Triple Shot Betty is about Geena and her quest for the perfect summer with her best friend Amber and her cousin cum best friend Hero (their mother's liked Shakespeare just a wee bit). The only problem is that right away Hero (who's been away at boarding school) and Amber can't stand each other. Just like that Geena's dreams go out the window and she's stuck refereeing while they all work at the same teeny, tiny coffee shop and mourning her lost hours of girly bonding.

That's about all I can say about the book without giving away things that happen much, much later in the book except to maybe add that some boys (four or so) are thrown in the mix.

I've wanted to read this book for a while and ended up getting it at the library (my libraries have so few YA books t's an accomplishment) and I'm glad I did because I'm not sure I would buy this book. About 2/3 to 3/4 of the book if taken up by general tales of Geena's summer and for a long while I wondered if this was just going to be a mediocre tale of three girls' summer and the quest to solve their boy problems.

Then way into the book (I honestly think it was maybe 40 pages from the end?), the whole plot point mentioned on the jacket flap (not mentioning it here b/c I think it's kind of spoiler--check Amazon if you want to know it) showed up. At that point it seemed almost like that was thrown in to make this book have 'something' in the plot.

For me, this book just sort of...happened. It was an alright book but I felt like there could have been so much more to it and maybe some reworking would have done it well (like making more out/expanding the last 1/4 of the book or deciding to make it about Geena, Hero, & Amber and working that more). It felt like the book couldn't decide what story it was trying to tell so it half told two of them...

I, personally, wouldn't recommend this book but a lot of other people seemed to really like it, so you can find some of their reviews if you'd like.

5/10