Counting Backwards

Counting Backwards
written by Laura Lascarso

Lots of thoughts swimming around about this book right now.  I liked the subject matter and most of how it was dealt with.  I thought the portrayal of mental illness was pretty realistic.  I liked that for once, despite the presence of panic attacks, a specific diagnosis wasn't attached to Taylor's situation--the symptoms were enough to describe her emotional state.  It was also pretty cool to have a novel with a Native American female protagonist (who happens to be from the place I'm living now).  I had a few qualms about the book, many of which stemmed from the triggering environment Taylor finds herself.  I was also kind of annoyed that much of Taylor's recovery seemed to be skipped over, with the focus more on the gardening metaphor than her own journey, although that was lightly touched on.  There didn't seem to be a huge focus on the fact that while Taylor's stay at the inpatient center helped, she still had a long way to go.  Taylor's struggles are real issues teenagers face, and it's always great to see a concrete story attached to stigmatized issues.

Rating: 4/5

The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June

The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June
written by Robin Benway

I loved this book.  Even more than I liked Audrey, Wait!, Benway's first big hit.  I had just finished watching The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and was in desperate need for a fix of lovable sisters, and April, May, and June filled that hole right in.  I loved the authentic dynamic between the three siblings, and while I really wished their powers had been more fleshed out, I thought they were remarkably well-developed, interesting characters.  Each sister had her own persona, and the three of them fit together wonderfully.  Some of the book was kind of predictable, but that definitely didn't ruin the fun--it actually seemed to add to it, knowing what was going to happen but waiting to see how the sisters would react.  The dialogue was snappy and so real!  I loved this book so much.

Rating: 4.5/5

Also by Robin Benway:
Audrey, Wait!

I got this book from...:

Fray

Fray
written by Joss Whedon

So here's the mistake I made going into this book.  I forgot that Joss Whedon has the impeccable ability to make me cry with everything he does.  Right.  This is no exception.  You missed the plot twists from Buffy?  Never fear.  This comic's got them around every corner, some predictable, most coming out of nowhere, especially the most heartbreaking one on the very last page.  Beyond that, it's really cool to see how the world has evolved since Buffy.  Granted, I would have really liked to have seen more of the Slayer mythology, but it was still neat to see what we got to see.  I'm pretty grateful that the opportunity was even given for a sequel of sorts to Buffy, that being said, I think it's time for me to go back to reading the Season 8 comics.  Give this one the careful read it deserves if you were a Buffy fan, though, and even if you weren't, the story's accessible to newbies, too.

I got this book from...:Paperbackswap

Dancing on the Edge

Dancing on the Edge
written by Han Nolan

Dancing on the Edge had a slow start, and for the first 2/3rds of the novel, I was thinking, of course, this is your typical award novel fodder--missing parents, coming of age for a young girl, ~symbolic~ names and colors and weather events.  But the last section of the book, wow.  The lead-up redeems itself in the pay-off, where Miracle's psyche is finally fully realized, not just for the reader, but for Miracle herself.  It's still all the typical coming of age awards fodder, but for once, it comes with a satisfying ending where the resolution delves into the true effects early abandonment can have on a child, rather than just having it be a convenient plot device.  Trope finally beautifully subverted.  Nolan clearly had this whole story planned out from the start, and the effort in the writing shows.  This is a careful book about a careful and miraculous girl.  Honestly, though, I could see this being read in middle school classrooms and the like, and that's bothersome to me.  I'm 21, and I don't think I would have gotten the full effect of the novel if it wasn't for my age.  I still don't think I do.  It takes some perspective to understand what's happening at the end, and something about having this read by kids Miracles' age weirds me out.  I wouldn't censor them from reading such a great story, of course, but I think the full impact would be missed.  This one is better enjoyed with some perspective.

Rating: 4/5

Crash

Crash
written by Lisa McMann

**contains spoilers**

I really didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did.  Supernatural YAs are getting kind of repetitive, but I ended up loving the originality of this one.  Like, yeah, visions are a repetitive thing, and I think I would have liked the book even more if it had turned out that she was exhibiting signs of schizophrenia or another mental illness, but that's because I'm a sucker for any and all books portraying MI.  I think the one thing that ultimately sold me on the visions was the ending, where they ended up jumping ship to Sawyer.  I was worried with it being a series that it would just be Jules having a vision per book with no point to them, but it'll be cool to see the repercussions of them jumping from person to person somehow.  I also like that, much like her Wake series, each character has such a well-developed persona.  I loved reading about Jules' siblings, and can't wait to hear more about them, as well as the relationship between the two families.  I hope mental illness is still a factor that is discussed in the next few books, and I'm pretty excited to see where Lisa McMann takes all this.  I'm just crossing my fingers that there is an explanation to the visions and they aren't just contrived one-shot plot points created to stretch this out into a series.

Dirty Little Secrets

Dirty Little Secrets
written by C.J. Omololu

**REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS**

Obligatory spoiler warning, since I have pretty much nothing to talk about in re: this book other than the ending.  I thought it was a fascinating exploration of hoarding, and I was so pumped to see how all of the ends would be wrapped up, so I was shocked (and not in a good way) to find that it all ended with Lucy burning her house down.  Really?  Even after Josh and Kaylie come into her life and introduce the idea of safety?  Even with the notion that maybe her brother could help, maybe her sister needs help?  And where is she going to end up now?  And what of her mental state?  I don't often hold books up to moral standards, but when mental illness is involved, I like to see authors come up with productive answers on how to actually deal with a situation.  Just like it says in the book, sometimes you've just got to act and deal with the consequences all at once rather than avoiding something chronically.  And burning a house down seems like the most avoidant act possible.  Pathetic.

Among Others

Among Others
written by Jo Walton

I'm kind of torn because I really wanted to love this book, but in the end, it was just missing something.  The ending was one of the most rushed things I've ever read.  I love how books are romanticized, and anyone who is a book lover will identify with Mor's true love and connection (albeit somewhat snobby/limited to SciFi) of books.  I do love that in the end, this is a book about the magic of books.  But there was so much blank space in the middle where not much happened, and that's a shame.  There are also a lot of blanks, the situation with her aunts, what actually ended up happening with her mom, what the fairies were, and that's disheartening to walk away from.  I don't know what else to say.  I really wanted this to be the perfect book and I'm pretty sad that it wasn't coherent enough to be when it had all the right ingredients.  

Almost Perfect

Almost Perfect
written by Brian Katcher

I've read some criticisms of this book, that Logan is unnecessarily antagonistic toward Sage, and while Logan's words and actions are incredibly hurtful and problematic, ultimately, he gets Sage, he changes, he evolves so much, and that matters, if not to you, then to me.  Growing up in an environment where anyone outside the "norm", whatever that means, is othered, I can relate to Logan's cluelessness.  We are all ignorant of something.  We all have things to learn and improve upon within ourselves, and that Logan was able to do so, even after making tons of mistakes, shows so much inner courage.  Anyways, I really appreciated this book, particularly its complexity, and while I'm still looking for a book that deals with transgendered teens that ends on a positive note, I know life is more complicated than that, and ultimately, the Paper Towns-esque ending is more realistic.

A First Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness

A First Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness
by Nassir Ghaemi

I have never seen a stronger case against the stigma that mental illness carries than what was written in this book.  What a read.  Ghaemi takes this radical approach in outlining why certain revered historical figures very probably had mental illnesses, including Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, both of whom I learned had attempted suicide at some point in their lives.  He takes it a step further though, by showing how their mental illnesses led them to success rather than failure, the same success that eluded many mentally healthy leaders.  I love this book.  I love the subject matter; I don't think I've ever been more interested in history than when it was intertwined with psychologically in this book.  I love that mental illness isn't just seen as a struggle, but a positive force.  I do wish the spectrum of mental illnesses included was wider, but the book does what it sets out to do, and it does it beautifully.  I want everyone to read this book to re-evaluate what mental health really means.

The Anybodies

The Anybodies
written by N.E. Bode

This is a must for children's book lovers!  It mimics the styles of Roald Dahl, Lemony Snicket, Harry Potter, and many more, and beyond that, references them, too.  It features a girl who can bring elements out of the books they came from and a grandmother with a house literally made of books.  And the characters!  They are all quirky and lovable, and even the antagonist is given a chance to be explained.  Mad props to any book that can explain the effects of trauma on a person's ability to love.  Easily one of my new favorites.

Rating: 5/5

Converting Kate

Converting Kate
written by Beckie Weinheimer

I could not have read this at a more opportune time.  I was raised in a conservative Muslim environment, and my experiences and thoughts were almost identical to those of Kate's.  This book is spot on with the doubts and uncertainty experienced when trying to get out of an extreme religious upbringing, and my praise and sympathies to the author for having to deal with this kind of stuff firsthand and then be able to write so eloquently about it.  The whole book is just beautiful, and Kate is privileged enough to live in a place where a liberal church exists--I have never had that experience, unfortunately.  I also like how the book ends on a kind of uncertain but hopeful note.  Nothing in life is certain, contrary to what religion might sometimes claim, and Kate still has a lot of thinking ahead of her.  It is really refreshing to see young adult fiction portraying teens thinking about the role their faith plays in their lives.  It's a natural part of most of our lives, and I wish there were more books that were open about that process.  The only other YA I have read that addresses religion is Sara Zarr's Once Was Lost.  Kudos to Weinheimer for her courage.

Found

Found
written by Margaret Peterson Haddix

I really enjoyed this book, but I'm unsure how the next few books will play out.  I am into sci-fi.  Historical fiction?  Not at all.  It seems like the sci-fi is being used just to make the HF more interesting, and I am not sure if it'll succeed.  I loved the suspense of this book, and I'm also very curious to see how they'll manage to keep that up.  I hope that this series functions as a cohesive series rather than each book being sort of a historical fiction standalone.  The explanation for time travel at the end of the book was predictably messy and confusing, but again, this is only book one and I am cautiously excited to see how everything plays out.

Fall to Pieces

Fall to Pieces
written by Vahini Naidoo

Wow, this book has a lot of negative reviews, and I'm not sure why.  I actually liked this book.  It took a while to get into, but was worth it for me.  The top  complaint seems to be the abundance of profanity, to which I say, have you ever been around teenagers?  It's accurate.  The other complaint I see is that it's 'melodramatic', which is just an insult to anyone who has lost a loved one.  Melodramatic?  Everyone deals with their grief in different ways, and the main character had just lost their best friend, to suicide, no less.  She and her friends do and say things that are harmful to both themselves and others, but they are in severe pain, and by the end of the book, they learn to resolve their problems and face their grief in a much healthier way.  For that development, I think this is a fantastic read and guide to managing unhealthy emotions in a turbulent time.  My only complaint would probably be the fact that therapy was brushed off so quickly and so often as an option.  Her best friend just died.  Of course she should be in therapy.  I'm always annoyed to see the already overwhelming stigma of mental health furthered in media, particularly a book addressing teen suicide.  You know that many of the readers of such a book will be individuals who identify with the subject, and therapy can be extremely helpful and even lifesaving when a good therapist is found.  Beyond that, the writing's not perfect, but the important ideas of pain and the freeing power of forgiveness are delivered wonderfully, and for that, I appreciate this book.

I got this book from...:Amazon Vine

The Basic Eight

The Basic Eight
written by Daniel Handler

**this review contains spoilers**

Let's start off with some of the positives.  The writing in this book is great--same dry, clever wit we saw in A Series of Unfortunate Events.  The characters and their development are second to none.  Handler has the ability to create extraordinarily rich characters.  The format is also an appealing aspect--being told from the future and written as a personal journal, with fake essay questions and vocabulary words in each chapter.  Unfortunately, despite its many positive qualities, the book did the one cringe-worthy thing I was dreading: a multiple personality plot twist.  Really?!  Handler is capable of so much better.  The entire time I was reading this book, I was so excited, but in the back of my mind, kept thinking that the one thing that would ruin it would be if Natasha and Flan were the same person.  What a disappointment.  And let's not even get into the mental health implications here.  Way to promote a dangerous stereotype.  I want to love this book so badly.  I want to pretend the ending never happened.  How can one small thing have such a profoundly negative impact on what was, up to that point, a great novel?  I would love to see Handler try his hand at a similar novel, one that's less problematic and less of a cop-out but in a similar setting.

I got this book from...:LibraryThing's SantaThing

Every Day

Every Day
written by David Levithan

I have so many things to say about this book.  Let's just start off by saying that it is a unique premise and it is well worth your time to give this book a place on your YA bookshelf.  I think David Levithan finally succeeds in his idea of sculpting a book with a multitude of POVs.  Where his other books, mostly notably The Realm of Possibility with its 20 characters, had little tying all of the stories together cohesively, all of the lives here are tied together with A's soul.

A few thoughts.

While from the start, Levithan makes it pretty clear that A has reached a point of contentment with not knowing who or what he is, that still feels like a big mystery to me.  To uphold the realism of the story, it was necessary to leave it a mystery.  But unlike A, I'm a lot less comfortable with unknowns, and that's entirely a personal preference with no reflection on Levithan's writing, but I do wish we had gotten...something more.  Not necessarily a full-fledged supernatural explanation, but something.

Rhiannon is an interesting character to me.  I was glad that A got to experience life in her body, and it is her existence that binds the story together, but at the same time, what's so special about one teenaged girl?  Levithan makes it a point to say that we're all human, with much more similar than different, so what makes Rhiannon the first one A falls in love with?  Honestly, really looking at the story, she doesn't seem so remarkable, beyond A's interpretation of her, which I would argue strays into manic-pixie-dream-girl territory, where a female character isn't fully imagined as a complex human being.

As always, Levithan does what the few and the talented in the YA realm do--really bring the character's thoughts to life.  Teenagers are usually plagued by the big questions, spending plenty of time thinking and angsting and learning from all of it, and it's great to witness A's inner dialogue.  We also get to see brief glimpses into A's unstable childhood.  That bit of the story left me completely unsettled.  No soul escapes that kind of instability unscathed.  A is far too well put-together for someone who has literally lost loved ones (and yes, as a child, attachments are formed and they are formed fast) every single day.  For storytelling purposes, this makes sense.  For reality...not so much.

I'm also a bit unsettled by the fact that all of the teens A occupied were located so close to one another.  Again, for storytelling purposes, makes sense.  But not every 16 year old lives within a few hours of one another.  It would have been incredible to witness glimpses into the daily lives of teens all over the world through A's eyes.  That could have reached out to so many more readers.  I almost wish Rhiannon wasn't a character at all, leaving us with A's story, maybe just with Nathan as a complication to deal with.  What does Rhiannon's character ultimately accomplish?  Yeah, we get the tragic first love story and it drives the plot, but to me, it doesn't seem to have the resonance as A's own journey of self-discovery.  She could have still been a love interest, but with a significantly smaller role.  I'm not sure.  She's the story's glue, but I wish there had been a different brand of glue.

Ultimately, a strong story, one I will highly recommend to readers, but I think it could have been stronger.  It'll stand out in the realm of YA fiction, it'll be one of the better books, but in Levithan's hands, I truly believe it could have been better.

Also by David Levithan:
The Realm of Possibility
Wide Awake
Are We There Yet?
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

reading next: Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon

Perfect You

Perfect You
written by Elizabeth Scott

I'd been waiting a very long time to read this book, and I'm sorry to say that I was underwhelmed.  Granted, it is one of Scott's earlier works, and she also has a history of being a hit-or-miss writer for me, but the summary sounded like it had the potential to be a cute, well-written book, and I was sad to see that it didn't deliver.  That isn't to say that there weren't good ideas.  There were.  The focus on the family and friendships outside of just your typical YA focus on a relationship were so good in theory...but ultimately also fell short.  It was mostly just frustrating to read.  Most of the problems, if not all, could have been solved with a dose of communication, and other than a particularly moving scene between old friends toward the very end of the book, when it didn't mean much, the characters just didn't spend enough time talking to each other, leading to overblown problems.  It's unfortunate that this does mirror what often happens in real life, but I read to escape real life, to find solutions, to see characters make mistakes I make, and see how they fix those mistakes or live with them.  The main character, Kate, ultimately did...neither of those things.  What a horribly passive character.  Characters have flaws, characters should have flaws, and Kate's drive for perfectionism was a great opportunity for exploration, but the surface was barely scratched.  Scott does a great job creating complex characters, but often doesn't seem to know what to do with all those complexities in the scheme of the story, other than in her incredible Living Dead Girl.  I keep waiting and wishing for another book by her as good as that one was, and I keep being let down.  Has the bar been set too high?  Another huge gripe that would be an oversight to ignore is the blatant moral at the end of the story, where the exact words the reader is told to emulate are "try to be happy".  Sure, optimism is a strong force, I will not deny that, but denying a teen readership the reality that oftentimes, human beings, particularly human beings in their teenage years, are in deep emotional pain is just offensive.  Depression and human hardship are real.  Don't let anyone tell you to just "try to be happy" as a coping mechanism.

Also by Elizabeth Scott:
As I Wake
Between Here and Forever
Love You, Hate You, Miss You
Something, Maybe
The Unwritten Rule
Stealing Heaven
Living Dead Girl

I got this book from...PaperBackSwap
currently reading: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Talor

Because It Is My Blood
written by Gabrielle Zevin

Zevin's intricate storytelling ability continues to amaze me.  Where the latest trend in YA fiction is to write serial fiction with cliffhangers and stories that are like puzzle pieces that make no sense without their companions, Zevin takes the time and effort to craft her stories into books that fit together, but do stand on their own two feet as well.  The self-contained nature of the story allows new readers to jump right in without necessarily having to read the predecessor, which tells me that Zevin cares more about the story than the additional revenue that comes from writing serialized books.  And as a reader, that matters to me.  But beyond all that, there's just the fact of the matter that this is a good story.  There are so many layers to everything that unfolds, but Zevin keeps it all at just the right amount of character development, settings, and plot points to keep it from getting confusing.  Such a great, suspenseful, well-woven read.

Rating: 5/5

Also by Gabrielle Zevin:

Elsewhere
All These Things That I've Done

I got this book from...:BookMooch

Claim to Fame

Claim to Fame
written by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Claim to Fame is a book with a pretty interesting concept but ultimately questionable execution.  Everything is wrapped up a little too neatly, a little too hastily.  With Haddix's popular Shadow Children series, the length of the story gave us the opportunity to really delve into the depths of her created world.  Here, she created a world but didn't seem to have enough time to fully explore it.  Some of the characters and plot points ultimately seemed entirely unnecessary upon the book's conclusion, and it just seemed like the story was trying to do too much.  It had some pretty cool plot twists, but fell flat overall.

Rating: 3/5

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
written by Ransom Riggs

Just another random person reiterating what an incredible book this is.  This was not at all the story I expected.  I thought, oh, a combination of text and old photographs, this is going to be some artsy wannabe pretending they're a hotshot professional photographer.  Guys, look closely at the cover.  She's hovering.  And that's just one of many incredible photographs contained within these pages, shaping a terrifying, suspenseful book that will actually leave you with chills.  There are so many incredible plot twists along the way.  I lost my love of the story a bit when time travel came into the picture, and the focus shifted from the incredible characters who I wanted to fully know to a less interesting, less bone-chilling plotline.  All of the props I have to offer to the characters, though.  Great book, really original, stays with you long after you're done.

Rating: 4.5/5

Underworld

Underworld
written by Meg Cabot

I've written on my dislike of the first book in the series, Abandon, so I was surprised to see that I liked Underworld slightly more than its predecessor.  It's still nowhere near the Meg Cabot I grew to love with The Princess Diaries and Mediator and all her other books, but it was a slight improvement.  We got to learn a bit more about John, which was nice, but he's still kind of a controlling boyfriend, and I'm still unsure how to feel about all that.  The novel is still slow-paced much like Abandon, but there was a decent amount of suspense to move it along.  Alex's storyline had very little appeal and didn't seem to add much to the story, despite pretty much being the main point of the book.  This book felt so forced.  I'm just not sure what happened to Meg's writing charm, but I wish she could find it again.

Rating: 3/5