Review: Time Between Us

TIME BETWEEN US
Tamara Ireland Stone
Hyperion
ARC from ALA Annual

Anna Greene, a nineties teen (1995, to be exact) stuck in the suburbs of Chicago, dreams of traveling to far-off places  after high school. When she falls for the new guy at school, she gets a chance for her wish to come true even sooner, but not in the way she'd imagined. Because the boy, Bennett Cooper, is a time traveler. And if not for a mistake in time, he wouldn't even be in 1995 -- instead he'd be at home in present-day (2012) San Francisco.

Time Between Us is the sort of book that just looks so full of promise. Romance, a nineties setting, and time travel -- what more could a 20-something female YA reader want? Well, in this particular case I did want more. Of everything. Let me state at the outset that I like this book. It's a nice mix of emotions, light sci-fi, and enjoyable romance. Anna Greene is no Mary Sue; she's smart, independent, and full of dreams for herself. Likewise Bennett Cooper is a wonderful mix of awkward and cute (and also my favorite character in the book). Their romance is cute, fairly predictable, and clean enough that I'd have no problem handing this book off to young teens.

The problem is that the book, at least in my opinion, lacks spark. I liked these characters, but never really really felt for them the way I like to feel for characters in stories. And while the time travel was set up nicely, with rules that guided it (I love when time travel has rules to it), the vast majority of the book takes place in 1995 and Anna's curiosity about the future -- hers and the rest of the world's -- never reaches the level that I'd assume it would. While she wants to go other places, she's oddly disinterested in discovering other times. Which brings me to another complaint, though I admit it's a superficial one: where are all the 90's references? I mean, this book takes place smack-dab in the middle of the decade, yet there are so few references to anything 90's that it's often easy to forget Anna's story doesn't take place in 2012. For adults reading the book out of nostalgia, this will be a let-down and for teens who are interested in the 90's setting, there's not a whole lot to latch onto.

It takes a while for Time Between Us to really take off and even when it does there's nothing earth-shattering in the way of plot twists or the stakes of the story, but it reminded me of The Future of Us in the way that it slowly, deliberately considered the effect that changing the past has on the future and how small decisions can cause a ripple effect across time and lives. Bennett is incredibly precise in his time travel and his interest in the butterfly effect were parts of the story that I absolutely loved and I wish they'd played a larger role, especially in the first half of the book. Anna's story is charming and definitely readable, but unfortunately never shot off into must-read status for me, though I know many others have disagreed.

review: reunited

REUNITED
Hilary Weisman Graham
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Back in middle school Tiernan, Alice, and Summer were best friends united by their love of the band Level3. Four years later the girls are no longer friends but, after graduation, embark on a road trip in Alice's old Pea Pod (the old RV the three girls used to hang out in) to see Level3 at their one-night-only reunion concert. It's a chance -- maybe -- for reconciliation between the three of them.

Rarely do I think to myself, "you know, I may be too old for this YA book," but with this one it happened. Alice, Tiernan, and Summer made some staggeringly bad decisions that made them seem younger than their 18 years. (These bad decisions included getting super drunk all over New Orleans and also agreeing to go to some swimming hole in the middle of the night with three random college dudes.) The girls encounter plenty of minor catastrophes (the Pea Pod getting stuck in mud, a door coming off, running out of gas...) on their road trip, but many of these problems had to do with their own decision-making skills, or lack of. I mention all of this not to rag on the characters or the book but to point out that sometimes a person such as myself just doesn't entirely fit with a book. I've always been much more cautious than these girls and I found it fairly difficult to see many of their actions as realistic, which put me a little off-balance while reading.

But about the actual book. It's a cute, run-of-the-mill road trip book with a unique twist in the form of the girls' lapsed friendship and their obsession with Level3. Alice, Tiernan, and Summer have grown into three very different people over the course of high school and each of them fits nicely into a "type:" Summer's the popular one; Tiernan's the bad-girl/rebel; and Alice is the good, smart, normal one. The stereotypes are obvious and while there are moments where the girls become a bit more than what they're depicted as, it's not often. For the most part what you see is what you get. I'm a fan of turning stereotypes on their head and this book never quite did that although it tried at times, especially with Summer (who was, not coincidentally, my favorite of the girls). Each of them have their own reasons for coming on the road trip and each is trying to run away from something -- either literally or figuratively. For the most part these reasons are side-stories that provide context to who these girls are in their "real" lives, but in the case of Tiernan, whose running away from the mom she sees as way too strict, the side-story overtakes everything else. The inevitable confrontation between Tiernan and her mother struck me as melodramatic and unearned, especially since many of the big issues in Tiernan's life hadn't really been explored before that moment when they became bigger than everything else. I felt a bit lost at times, as if I was supposed to know more about her life and her family than I did. This is a sample of the biggest problem I had with the book: many issues that the girls have don't seem like problems at all until the moment (usually during a heart-to-heart) when they suddenly become the focus of the story. It threw off the balance for me a bit,

Reunited isn't a heartwarming, emotional road trip novel, though it often seems to be trying for that. What it is instead is a fun, slightly gimmicky story of three ex-friends. For all my issues with it the book was a fun read that I found myself enjoying even though some parts were a little too cringeworthy. It's one that might be best for readers looking for a light, fun, but ultimately forgettable read.

review: overnight sensation

Overnight Sensation
Hal Eisenberg
self-published
(ebook sent for review)

When the newest song from Jonah's dad's recently reunited rock band accidentally becomes a radio hit there's only one problem: everyone thinks the song came from Jonah's band. Jonah's fake band, Hitstreak. And as Jonah and his friends reach higher levels of success it starts to sound a lot easier (and smarter) to just come clean about the whole thing -- if only they could do that without risking the wrath of the media mogul who sees Hitstreak as a potential gold mine.

This book requires a pretty serious suspension of disbelief in order to really work. You've got to buy into a string of increasingly improbable events that lead to "Hitstreak's" song being a success to accept the rest of the story, and I admittedly had some difficulty doing this at times. However, once you accept the story and Hitstreak's rise to fame, the rest of the book gets a bit easier to go with. This book doesn't have the realism I went into it expecting, but what it does have is a story that follows in the tradition of crazy teen hijinks and utter ridiculousness. It's a bit campy and though I'm not sure if that was really the intent, the story instantly reminded me of the over-the-top comedy, Big Fat Liar. (Of course, that comparison only makes sense if you've seen Big Fat Liar. And if you haven't, you should. It's funny.)

This book is a comedy that sometimes feels like maybe it wasn't intended as a comedy, which makes finding it funny a little uncomfortable as I never knew if I were laughing with or at the book. The teen dialogue here never quite flowed for me; it always vaguely reminded me of how an adult might think teens talk. Yet despite the fairly cringeworthy dialogue, Jonah's observations and asides were sarcastic, wry, and winning. He's the most level-headed character in the story and his thoughts often echoed my own in thinking ahahaha no, there is no way that's going to happen right before something crazy happened.

This is a short little book with an out-there plot and plenty of shenanigans that make it a quick, fun read. The voice and writing aren't the best, but there are twists in the plot (especially near the end) that are good enough that I found myself overlooking those problems. This isn't a must-read by any means, but it's plenty entertaining.

review: second chance summer

SECOND CHANCE SUMMER
Morgan Matson
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
(bought finished copy at ALA)

Taylor Edwards is spending the summer back at her family's lake house -- the one she hasn't been back to since she was twelve and had her first boyfriend, a boy whose family also spent their summers on the lake. But this summer, Taylor and her family aren't at the lake house for rest and relaxation: they're there because her dad's been diagnosed with terminal cancer and the family wants to spend their last few months together, without work or school or other commitments intruding too much.

It should be said, first off, that this is a total tearjerker. Books often make me sad, maybe even tear up a little, but they rarely make me all out cry the way the last few chapters of this one did. Like, tears-down-the-cheeks, vision-too-blurry-to-read crying. So yeah, Second Chance Summer is sad.

But beyond that. This is one of those YA contemporaries that fits solidly into the "Dessen-esque" camp (is that a term? if not, it is now) -- family, friends, emotion, and a dollop of romance. As far as characters go, Taylor Edwards isn't great. It's not that she's unlikeable or anything, but her most defining quality seems to be her bad habit of running away, in whatever way she can, when the going gets tough. Aside from that, she's a likeable but uninspiring character. Those around her have a bit more variety, from her ballet-dancing younger sister, her academically-driven older brother, to her strong-but-fading father. There's also Taylor's ex-best friend and Henry, her very first boyfriend -- neither of them all too thrilled to see her at first. There's quite a bit of build up to what Taylor did, at age twelve, that's still a big enough deal to have such a huge bearing on how they interact with each other. I didn't love the flashbacks that told this history, nor the fact that it was built up so much: in short, I was expecting more.

And I did get more -- just not with that particular aspect of the story. This is a slow-moving story, especially in the first half, and that's going to bother some readers. But really, the story spins lazily out in a way that works for what this is: an incredibly emotional read about a girl who, used to running away when things get hard, realizes there are some things you can't run away from and time is fleeting. This book is hefty for a contemporary -- weighing in at 468 pages -- and there were moments when the book was perfect, absolutely perfect, and moments when it so wasn't. The romance between Taylor and Henry was better, for me, in theory than it was in practice: I absolutely saw and felt the deep feelings they had for one another, yet it often seemed that this was a little too perfect. Henry had little dimension and, like Taylor herself, sometimes seemed a bit surface-level.

Better than the story of Taylor's friendships and romance was the story of her family and how she gets to know them all a little better during this summer. The scenes between her and her dad, as she learned all the things about him that she was surprised she'd never known before, were heartfelt and real, as were her deepening relationships with her siblings. But better even than this is the writing of this book. None of the characters are that exceptional and the various elements of the story have been used in many books, many times before, but Morgan Matson's writing brings this story, the characters, and their ripe emotions, to life. I could feel exactly what Taylor was feeling, what she was going through; much like Sarah Dessen and Terra Elan McVoy (and all the best contemporary writers, really), Matson has a knack for getting the emotions right and bringing them to life.

Review: Shug

SHUG
Jenny Han
Aladdin

Annemarie Wilcox, or "Shug" (as in Sugar) as her mom calls her, is twelve years old and in love with her oldest friend (Mark) the boy she's grown up riding bikes with and whose mother she often wishes were her own. But when junior high starts her new feelings toward Mark, as well as the new social structure that comes with her new school, makes things so much more complicated than they used to be. With her mom's drinking, her parents' fighting, nothing is as easy as it used to be.

It's been a while since I've read a really good middle grade novel and Shug reminded me of all the things I love about the genre. The book is not about just one thing. It's not Annemarie's crush on Mark or her struggle with the popular girls or her relationship with her mother or the faultlines that have begun to show in her family. This book is about all of that, along with Annemarie's insecurity -- the kind that often comes when you're on the brink of teenagedom and everything is changing. Set in a small, Southern town, the setting gives Annemarie's story a more old-fashioned feel, as if it could be taking place decades ago instead of in the 21st century. This, I liked. It may just be me, but middle grade is one genre where I love when it seems a bit older, a bit timeless. Most of my favorite MG books have been unmoored in this way.

Annemarie is an authentic pre-teen whose struggles with herself and those around her ring true. This book takes a simple approach to some serious subjects such as family dysfunction and alcoholism. There were some heartbreaking moments that, because of how they were written, felt neither heavy nor trite. They fit.

For many of the storylines in this book, there's no neatly wrapped-up ending. There's a sense of moving on, but nothing that you'd traditionally think of as closure, but that works here because the problems Annemarie is facing are life's problems and they aren't ones that are resolved yet. This is a book I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to young readers.

Review: The Probability of Miracles

THE PROBABILITY OF MIRACLES
Wendy Wunder
Razorbill

After a seven year battle with cancer, Cam has gotten the worst news from her doctor. There's nothing else they can do. Short of a miracle, Cam's days are seriously numbered. Unfortunately, Cam doesn't believe in miracles. (She also doesn't believe in God, romantic love, or anything even approaching "fate" or "destiny.") But her mom, and her younger sister, Perry, do believe in miracles and they move from their home in Florida to Promise, Maine, a place where miracles happen every day. Everlasting sunsets. Purple dandelions. Snowstorms in July. Her family wants a miracle, but Cam has her own things to accomplish -- a list of "normal" teenage activities she wants to check off her list before she dies.

Cam is a sarcastic, pessimistic (with good reason) character. Unlike her mother and sister, she's accepted the inescapable and imminent nature of her death and moving from DisneyWorld to Promise, Maine is more to humor them than anything else. Cam doesn't expect to carve out a spot for herself in Promise, and she definitely doesn't expect Asher, the perfect boy she finds herself falling for. In fact, even as these things are happening she doesn't quite believe or trust them. Cam's a cynical, stubborn girl and certainly there were plenty of reasons for this (the cancer, for one. the dead father, for another), but still I found it hard to relate to her. I understood, in a logical way, why she was the way she was, but it didn't make me like her any more and that was a disappointment. If I can't like or relate to a protagonist, there's little hope for me truly liking the book.

However, this book has quite a bit more than just Cam to offer. There's her mother and Perry, both of whom are well-written characters who react uniquely but realistically to Cam's cancer. Her mother would go to the ends of the earth to save Cam, but doesn't suffocate her the way you might expect; on the contrary, she pushes Cam to live her life as normally and fully as possible. I loved this, just as I loved the way Perry looked up to Cam despite their often antagonistic relationship.

The town of Promise was, in a word... brilliant. From the miracles to its hidden, elusive nature (the road into town can only be found from the drive-thru of a Dunkin' Donuts) of Promise, it's one of the most magical, ethereal settings I've come across. It's a place perfectly suited to the pursuit of a life-saving miracle and it was easy for me to see how Asher, Cam's love interest, would have no desire to leave. The relationship between Cam and Asher had a slow build and started out wonderfully, with the two of them trading snarky banter and slowly building a friendship. However, once the romance aspect entered the framework of their relationship, it overtook everything else and moved so quickly that it wound up feeling a little cardboard. Eventually it felt like Asher was just there to be Cam's boyfriend, her "true love," and the shallowness of their relationship didn't fit the deep feelings they professed to have for each other. It was hard to see what Asher saw in Cam, why he fell so hard for her, and also difficult to pinpoint just what, exactly, brought the two together. Any commonalities between them seemed more a result of them sharing the same space than any true connection.

Wendy Wunder is a talented writer with a unique voice; I loved the writing of The Probability of Miracles and will definitely be on the look for her next book. But unfortunately with this one, everything swings back around to Cam, the character at the center of this book's universe. There were moments, few and far between, where I felt like I really "got" her, but those moments quickly dissipated and I was left with a cynical, angry, sarcastic character whose nature I can't blame entirely on her circumstances. Her stoic nature and lack of belief in anything, along with the fact that even at the end it was hard to tell if she eventually came around to believing in miracles, definitely didn't endear me to her. The things she did and the way she constantly seemed to contradict or crush the hopes of those around her, the people who loved her so much, made it difficult to be around her for three-hundred-plus pages. And though the ending is wonderful, beautifully written, and just the right amount of unexpected, the fact that the rest of the book didn't have the same emotional thrust, made it feel unearned.

Review: Shatter Me

SHATTER ME
Tahereh Mafi
Harper/HarperCollins

Juliette can kill people just by touching them. She's a menace to her crumbling society and for 264 days she's been locked away and hasn't touched anyone. And then she gets a cellmate, a guy named Adam who isn't afraid of her and looks incredibly familiar. Soon, Juliette discovers that the Reestablishment - the people ruining what's left of the world - have plans of their own, to use her as a weapon in their war. Struggling to keep what little humanity she has left, Juliette must find a way to resist the plans they have for her and find a way to escape and make her own choices.

There is so much I absolutely positively love about this book. The world these characters inhabit is bleak and unforgiving and just a little bit too real; the horror of the Reestablishment is terrifying and its leader, Warner, is despicable and disgusting. When this book goes bad, it goes all the way bad. And though it's more than a little uncomfortable, it makes the stakes of the story all the higher and ups the tension. But on the flipside of this is the fact that when it's good it's absolutely brilliantly bright and wonderful.

First and foremost, I absolutely love Juliette. Tahereh Mafi has written an original, unique, and thoroughly incredible character in Juliette, a girl whose strange power has caused so much misery for her and others. Her parents refused to help her and ultimately abandoned her; she's been locked away from society and deprived of any human interaction. More than this, she's a good-hearted person who wants to help others but only ends up hurting them... and she has no idea why. Juliette is a girl determined to keep her humanity in a world that insists she doesn't have any and her internal struggles are written so, so perfectly. Her romance with Adam became a love story I'm rooting for almost instantly and it's hard to pinpoint exactly why. This is definitely a case of YA insta-love, which I often dislike, but here it worked, and it worked incredibly well as Adam is the only person Juliette's ever known who treats her as a human being instead of a monster and the two have a connection that's impossible to deny. Juliette, who despite everything still believes in beauty and love and goodness, has found much of this in her relationship with Adam.

The writing in this book is wonderful. Though the constant metaphors and strike-outs will no doubt be a bit much for some readers, it suits Juliette's character and struggles perfectly. Mafi's writing is lyrical and beautiful, pages and pages and pages of absolutely stunning sentences, though I have a feeling that the polarizing effect of this book (everyone seems to either love it or hate it) is due to this writing. You'll either love it or hate it, and I love it. The writing in this book is amazing; I honestly can't say enough good things about it. Love, love, love.

And all of that being said, though for much of this book I loved it more than I could even comprehend, at some point in the second half of the story things took a turn. The feeling of the book changed. As more characters entered the story, along with new twists, some of the urgency and desperation that had been at the core of Juliette's story in the beginning, went away. It's hard to discuss what happens without spoiling the whole book, but I will say that it ended in a way I wasn't expecting, a way that, while I kind of liked it, didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book. Juliette's unique and strong personality seemed to get diluted in the mess of people and events that were so different from what had come before. Additionally, too many hormone-fueled scenes between her and Adam took the focus away from the more important parts of the story. While these scenes were well-written, they often felt inappropriate and gratuitous in the midst of everything else that was happening: it was as if Juliette's focus had shifted away from protecting herself and Adam and the larger issues she was grappling with earlier in the book and over to a complete preoccupation with sex. In a way this makes sense, considering that she hadn't touched anyone in nearly a year, but still it seemed like a lot of (fairly redundant) overkill that felt like way too much and also stalled the plot.


Still, despite my issues with the last quarter of this book, this is one story that completely captured my attention. It overwhelmed me with how beautifully it was written and how complex the characters are. The ending nicely sets up a second book and while I worry the feeling of this second book will be (judging by the ending) so different from what makes this first book incredible, I still love Shatter Me and am cautiously optimistic about book #2. There were so many huge passages from this book that were incredibly, searingly beautiful, and the character of Juliette has a place as one of the most original characters and a personal favorite of mine. Bottom line: I love this book. So much.

Five: Best YA Debuts of 2011

Last year I did Persnickety Snark's end-of-year top five lists. Though I don't think she's doing it this year and I haven't heard of any other bloggers doing it either, I still really want to do an end-of-year-best-books-most-favorites tribute sort of thing. Today I'm focusing on (in no particular order), my top five YA debut novels from 2011.

1. Where Things Come Back

John Corey Whaley

The greatness of this book is in large part due to its incredible setting. It's a lazy, slow-moving story in the best possible way. The main story of the disappearance of Cullen's younger brother is interspersed with a very different narrative that while at first confusing eventually ties together so perfectly. It's about no-longer-extinct birds, a nothing little town, best friends, and brothers. It's highly literary and one of the best comfort reads I've read in a while.

2. Rival

Sara Bennett Wealer

You might know I absolutely eat up stories about friendship gone wrong, and this is one of the better ones. It's not about mean girls or stereotypes, but instead an honest look at two girls whose close friendship falls apart in hurtful and complicated ways. Years later the girls face off as competitors in an already highly-competitive singing competition and their unresolved feelings must finally come to a head. One of the books I feel most confident in recommending to others, especially if you already enjoy contemporary YA or stories centered around music/performing.

3. Flirt Club

Cathleen Daly

If Rival is about friendship falling apart then Flirt Club is the exact opposite as Isabelle and Annie have a rock-solid, thoroughly geektastic best-friendship. This book walks the line between YA and MG. It's written as notes between the two girls (both of whom are a bit way nerdy) and is one of the few books to have me laughing out loud at it.

4. Leverage

Joshua C. Cohen

Ack. This book is brutal. Definitely one of the most brutal books I've ever read. It's characters are a mix of the worst and the best possible (KURT BRODSKY FTW) and though I'd love to reread it I'm a bit scared to if you want to know the truth. Still, if you want an amazing, if horrifying, story with awesome protagonists, this is your book.

5. Other Words for Love

Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

This is one of those complicated books where my feelings on it aren't so clear-cut right away. It's been almost an entire year since I read it though, and this is still a book I find myself thinking about every so often. Ari is one of the more realistic and well-written characters I've come across and her story is one I absolutely love.

Review - Paper Covers Rock

PAPER COVERS ROCK
Jenny Hubbard
Delacorte Books for Young Readers

After failing to save his friend Thomas from drowning, poet-boy Alex is overcome with grief. Not wanting to get kicked out of the boarding school they attend, Alex and his buddy Glenn agree to lie about the circumstances that led to Thomas' drowning. However when some of Alex's grief and guilt finds its way into his poetry, his teacher and mentor starts to suspect there's more to the story than what the boys are telling.

I'm not sure what I was expecting out of this novel, but it definitely wasn't what I got -- and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The novel itself is Alex's journal, the one he hides in the library and writes in whenever he can to tell the story of Thomas' death and his insane crush on his teacher/mentor, Miss Dovecott. The book is highly literary, even going so far as to borrow chapter headings from sentences in Moby Dick and referring to Alex sometimes in the first person and sometimes the third. Though I generally really love a more literary style, I expected this type of literary to annoy me. And it did, but not much. The truth is that Alex, though often seeming unrealistic (not as a male voice, but as an actual person, regardless of gender) is exactly the type of character who would reference books he hasn't yet read and pepper his storytelling with lines of poetry.

For such a short book (this clocks it at less than 200 pages, at least in the ARC edition), there's a lot going on here. Not only the aftermath of Thomas' death, but also questions about the sexuality of a few characters in the book, Alex's romantic feelings for the young Miss Dovecott, his family situation, and explorations of faith and lack of faith. There's a lot here and sadly I didn't feel like most of these important themes and subplot were fully explored, which left me feeling a bit unsettled by the end of the story.

Additionally there were a few nitpicky things that really bothered me. It was definitely not believable to me that Alex would be able to remember conversations verbatim the way he did and I also found it difficult to believe that, at only 21 years old, Miss Dovecott would be hired as the English teacher at an all boy's boarding school -- or even that she would be qualified. I suspect this is something that might not bother others, but it definitely rubbed me the wrong way.

That said, I really enjoyed Alex's relationship with Miss Dovecott, especially as he was struggling to find a balance between going along with his friend (Glenn) and working on his poetry with someone who honestly wanted to help him. Though there were definite hints of romance between them, for the most part the plot avoided being completely inappropriate and really added to the story as a whole. I did wish there was more about Thomas (the boy who drowned) in the book, but this is much more a novel about the depths and confusion of friendship than it is about grief, which was  unexpectedly nice. This was definitely, in spite of its faults, a book I enjoyed reading and one I can easily recommend to you.

Paper Covers Rock is out June 14th.

Review - The Time-Traveling Fashionista

THE TIME-TRAVELING FASHIONIST
Bianca Turetsky
Poppy

To the chagrin of her mom and best friend, 12 year old Louise would rather wear "old" vintage clothes than shop at the mall. When she attends a vintage clothing sale hosted by two eccentric women, she finds a beautiful dress that she thinks will be perfect for an upcoming school dance. She tries it on, against the advice of the sellers, and is instantly transported to the early 20th century. In the body of a famous actress and on board a dazzling cruise ship, Louise is determined to enjoy being someone else for a while until she finds out that the ship she's on board is the Titanic and she has to find a way to get back to her real life before the shipwreck.

Louise is a likable main character and her story is an enjoyable one. The history theme is interesting, especially as Louise's interest in the history of the Titanic grows, though I'm not sure how accurate many of the scenes set aboard the ship are in terms of societal norms and dialogue. Louise's growing relationships on board the ship, especially with her maid, are interesting and fun to read about but because Louise is from 2011 and the other characters are stuck permanently in 1912, there is a necessary distance between them that will probably keep readers from getting too emotionally invested in anyone other than Louise. One of the most fun parts of the book was seeing Louise's thoughts while on board the Titanic -- she was humorous and somewhat believable in her reactions to finding herself trapped in the past.

Fashion and the history of fashion really is a huge part of this book and while I'm overwhelmingly fashion illiterate (that's a thing, right?), the story is great for girls who love vintage clothing and are interested in its history. There are quotes from iconic designers, descriptions of clothing that goes deeper than merely stating the brand, and pictures that in the final edition will be full color.

Though from everything I've read this book is being marketed as YA, the writing style and the 12 year old protagonist both seem a bit young and personally I think the book will appeal much more to pre-teens and younger teen girls than it will older teens.

*Recieved ARC at ALA.

Review - Wither

WITHER: THE CHEMICAL GARDEN TRILOGY
Lauren DeStefano
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Set in a nearby future where, due to genetic experimentation, males only live to age 25 and girls to 20, young children are routinely orphaned, extreme poverty is everywhere, and the threat of a young girl being kidnapped and sold into a polygamous marriage to those few wealthy men is common, Rhine is one such child bride. At the age of 16 she finds herself married to Linden, a frail and willowy 21 year old whose first wife and true love is quickly dying at the age of 20. Along with her two sister wives, Jenna (age 18) and Cecily (13), Rhine is expected to take the place of Linden's first wife.

This is unlike other books marketed as dystopian that I've read. While there is a worldwide issue, the story is much more focused on Rhine being forced into a polygamous marriage than it is the crisis of everyone dying so young. As this is the first in a planned trilogy, it's entirely possible that the short lifetime will become a bigger issue in the next two books.

Rhine is a wonderful character with a surprisingly fleshed-out history that really added to the understanding of who she is and the decisions she makes. Likewise I loved her two sister wives and the relationships she had with each of them. While Jenna is beautiful but stubborn and hates their husband, young Cecily is ecstatic about her rich new life and eager to fit into her new role. Each of these characters (as well as their husband, Linden) changed throughout the course of the novel and I loved reading about them. To be honest there was a part of me that wished this story had been told through each girls' perspective just because I liked Jenna and Cecily so much.

Unfortunately, while I loved Rhine's relationships with her sister wives, the relationship she had with Linden came across a little lukewarm to me. Her feelings towards him often seem a bit wishy-washy and she seemed oblivious to a few key things that seemed fairly obvious to me. I felt that her fond feelings for him were a part of the story just to provide something of a love triangle between Linden, Rhine, and Gabriel (the servant boy she falls for) and this didn't ring true to me. Although as an aside, this may be due in part to the fact that I thought the slow development of Rhine and Gabriel's feelings was incredible and I really loved him as a character.

Aside from the characters and their relationships, the plot here is one that definitely kept me on my toes. There's a genuine darkness and sense of dread to this book, which is as much a mystery as it is dystopian, and I found it difficult not to skip ahead to the last page (don't worry, I didn't!) to find out how it ends. The ending, while offering hope, seemed almost too easy and didn't bring a real satisfaction to the rest of the story. While this is the first in a trilogy and I'm sure the various mysteries will be unraveled in the next two books, I am of the opinion that a first book should be able to stand on its own and unfortunately I don't think this one does.

*Received ARC at ALA.

Review - Other Words for Love

OTHER WORDS FOR LOVE
Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

Though this book's summary makes it sound like a story of love and heartbreak, it's really more complicated than that. Set in the late 1980s, Other Words for Love is a coming-of-age story in the truest sense of the word and it follows Ariadne, a teenage girl who seems to be an observer in her own life. Intimidated by her beautiful, brilliant, and bold best friend and overshadowed by her married older sister who suffers from post-partum depression, Ari tries to be the best daughter she can for her mother, who expects her to make up for her older sister's mistake of getting pregnant and married as a teenager. Feeling guilty about her jealousies and the lustful crush she has on her sister's husband, Ari continually tries to uphold other's expectations of her, often at her own expense, a habit she only breaks (and then only somewhat) when she meets the Ellis family and falls for Blake, a guy who seems as trapped in his family as she is in hers.

This book surprised me in a lot of ways and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it. There was much more sexual content than I was expecting and a lot of it felt unnecessary, especially as the romantic relationship didn't seem to be the primary focus of the novel. Additionally, having the story set in the 80s gives the whole novel a distant, almost blurry effect, as if it were a Polaroid snapshot. The feeling of distance works well in this slow-paced book but the time period is strange as there doesn't seem to be a lot of historical significance to anchor the reader and it's relatively recent, though not recent enough to be remembered by many YA readers. As a general rule I think that in order for a story to be told in a nontraditional way or set in a nontraditional place or time there should be a specific reason for it; the decision should be demanded by the story. In this case I didn't see that and felt that the story could have been told just as well and possibly better if it were set in the present day.

However, in spite of this distance there's a certain enchantment to Ari's story and Ari herself. She's a well-written, multi-dimensional protagonist that, though quiet and unassuming, completely pulls the reader in because she's just that real. The people in her world (her family and few friends) are also well-developed and realistic, from her overbearing mother to her hot-and-cold older sister, and the things Ari goes through at the hands of those she loves are both heart-wrenching and completely believable. Ari is in an odd place in her family of being taken for granted while at the same time expected to exceed and fulfill her mother's aspirations of her. Likewise in her friendships she's also in a precarious place as her best friend (who for a long time has been her only friend) has no trouble ditching her when other, more interesting people come around but expects Ari to always be around for her and gets jealous when she begins to develop other friendships. The paradoxes of Ari's situations are, to me, incredibly interesting and realistic, which gives weight to the story.

Honestly, at times this book feels tedious, especially when it comes to Ari and Blake's ill-fated relationship. Though the writing is good and had its moments of beauty, it isn't enough to carry through some of the more boring scenes and since the book is so slow-paced I sometimes found myself wishing there were more action. But then I got to the end. And though there was some boring bits in between, the ending of this book really pulls the whole thing together, tying the story up nicely and in the best possible way as some of the storylines that didn't even seem important are pulled to the forefront, making the entire novel better and ending it in both an incredibly realistic and hopeful way for this character who definitely deserves happiness. The slow pace and lack of excitement may put off some readers, but stick with it and you might find a story to love.

Review - Anna and the French Kiss

ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS
Stephanie Perkins

This is a love story of the highest, best quality. Sent to an American boarding school in Paris for her senior year, Anna has to leave behind the boy she likes, her best friend, and her adorable little brother to live in a country where she doesn't know the language. Of course, Anna quickly finds friends in the form of the girl next door, an overly-PDA couple, and the amazing, beautiful, wonderful Etienne St. Claire... who has a girlfriend. Though this is a love story between Anna and Etienne St. Claire (and what a love story it is!), it's also the story of her senior year in Paris: exploring the city, dealing with her new and old friendships, and all the while hopping from theater to theater as she learns to love her new city.

The characters that fill Anna's world are incredibly well-written. From our film-obsessed and slightly awkward protagonist, to slacker-boy Josh, to the terrified-of-heights, adored-by-everyone St. Claire. It's been said by others before, but these characters and their interactions are incredibly authentic. This book does away with all the staple cliches and stereotypes of the YA love story in favor of incredibly adorable relationships and realistic dialogue. Somehow Perkins manages to write everyday conversations without making them boring or annoying, but instead utterly charming.

Anna's relationships and feelings in this book are not clear-cut. There are shades of grey in the things she wants (or thinks she wants), the decisions she makes, and the ways she acts. Though this means that there are a few times I was less-than-pleased with her actions, it also makes for an incredibly realistic and authentic read.

And if the characters are lovely and realistic, the setting is... well, the setting is magical. This is Paris, just as beautiful and wonderful and yummy as you'd ever imagine it, and Perkins does an incredible job of building Anna's world without getting in the way of story. The descriptions are intense and beautiful, pulling the reader into the world and the story.  So much about this book - the characters, setting, and Anna's amazingly authentic voice - is perfect. Funny, warm, magical, and unforgettable. I love it. I love it, and I didn't expect to. Read this book ASAP; it really is that good.

Review: Across the Universe

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
Beth Revis

I've had this book sitting on my shelf for months, waiting for the new year to read it. This is the first YA sci-fi I've found and it takes place on, as the cover says, a "spaceship fueled by lies." Amy is a teenage Earth girl who was cryogenically frozen 250 years ago - before the ship took off for it's 300 year journey to a new planet. Elder is the teenage heir to the ship's tyrannical current leader, Eldest. Together, Amy and Elder must not only keep Amy safe aboard a ship where she's labeled as a "freak," but also figure out who keeps unplugging the cyro chambers, killing the people inside of them.

The premise here - murder and lies aboard a spaceship - is fantastic like woah. However, despite the description on the back cover of this book there are lots of little subplots inside that sometimes distract from the main story. Elder's interest in his biological parents is a subplot that doesn't really come in until the very end of the novel and other storylines, such as Harley's story and the character of Luthe, felt either out-of-place or like they should have been bigger than they were. The murder mystery aspect gets forgotten for a time, so much that when it came back into the story I'd almost forgotten about it. However, despite the many storylines the ship's mysteries are incredibly interesting and make this sometimes-slow-moving book a page-turner.

While a few of the characters seemed a little one-dimensional, for the most part they were awesome and realistic as they dealt with life on the ship. The two lead charcters, Amy and Elder, were especially awesome - Amy as she navigated her way through a world where everyone just seems a little bit off and tries to make peace with having to live with these people for the rest of her life, and Elder as he tries to protect Amy and find out what secrets Eldest is hiding from him. Probably the biggest issue I had with these characters was the fact that after a while Amy and Elder's voices (the book is told from their alternate POVs) started to sound very similar and I sometimes had to double-check whose chapter I was reading.

I can't review this book without talking about the setting. OH MY GOODNESS THE SETTING. There is a whole world on board the spaceship called Godspeed, and though it's very obviously a dystopian society it didn't remind me at all of other dystopian books I've read. Here, everything is the same. There is one race, no religion, and most everyone on the ship seems incredibly empty-headed, incapable of believing anything different from what Eldest tells them to believe. The exception here are the "crazy" people in the Ward, including Elder and Harley, who almost seem like real people. The outlooks on art, sex, and individual thought is bizarre to say the very least. 

This book was different from what I was expecting. There were more mysteries, more intrigue, and less romance than I was expecting. And though I didn't totally love it, I did like it quite a lot and now I find that I can't stop thinking about it. Across the Universe is one of those books that I want to like more than I do, that's different from what I expected, and that I'm eager for the sequel to. Yeah, all of that.

*Across the Universe comes out Jan. 11

FIVE: Best YA Debuts of 2010

1. The Mockingbirds

Daisy Whitney

To Kill A Mockingbird is one of the most beloved books in America. I've yet to meet a person who doesn't love that book. There's a balance of Truly Great Characters and Right v. Wrong that's impossible to ignore. With her debut novel The Mockingbirds, Whitney pays tribute to the great classic by not only tackling a heavy issue (date rape) and having justice always at the forefront, but also by the obvious and wonderful references to the classic that are sprinkled throughout the book. Though The Mockingbirds stands very well on its own, it works much better if you've read To Kill A Mockingbird beforehand. In either case, an incredible book with a great message, story, and characters.

2. Sea

Heidi R. Kling

Oh, Sea. One of the most unique and original premises I've come across in a long time, this book is definitely one-of-a-kind in the best way possible. Kling manages to not only write a wonderful tale of grief and love, but also weave together one of the best cross-cultural novels out there. With an emotional connection that's impossible to ignore and an incredibly atmospheric setting, Sea is one of those books that I genuinely wish everyone knew about. It's just that great.

3. The Naughty List

Suzanne Young

In one of the best subversions of stereotype, Young's The Naughty List mixes cheerleaders, espionage, and cheating boyfriends to create one of the sweetest books yet. With its sugar-sweet heroine, shades-of-grey questions of morality, and omg spies!!, this is not only refreshingly original, but also just plain awesome.

4. Tweet Heart

Elizabeth Rudnick

Told primarily through tweets, Rudnick's debut Tweet Heart is a cute story with a premise old as time (the old boy-likes-girl-who-likes-another-boy thing) and a cast of characters that are wonderfully quirky. I'm a sucker for stories told in interesting ways and the online drama of Tweet Heart is both adorably awkward and wonderful. Plus, you guys, there are just so many Star Trek references. (Never doubt my geek cred.)

5. I Now Pronounce You Someone Else

Erin McCahan

The story of a high school girl who gets engaged and spends her senior year planning a wedding, I Now Pronounce You Someone Else tackles a subject rarely mentioned in YA, and it does it well. Not only is the love story super incredibly wonderful, but the realism and pain of the situations that our protagonist finds herself in is handled really well. This novel covers not only teen marriage, but also the complex world of family dynamics, and what it means to be yourself versus what it means to be an Us. A story that I highly recommend.

Have you read any of my top 5 picks? If so, what did you think of them?

Debut Review: I Now Pronounce You Someone Else

I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU SOMEONE ELSE
Erin McCahan

Bronwen Alexis Oliver longs to be Someone Else. Stuck in a family where they discuss the news at the dinner table and avoid all topics of personal interest, Bronwen used to think she was switched at birth. Her real family would be normal and her real mother would be okay with having a brown-haired daughter. And then Bronwen runs into Jared Sondervan, a family friend a few years older than her, and she falls in love with him. Him and his wonderful, normal family. When he proposes, she accepts, and spends Senior Year planning a wedding, rushing headlong into becoming an Us and starting her life with Jared, not quite realizing what she might be giving up.

This book is something special. Though the hook here is Bronwen and Jared's engagement and upcoming wedding, that's not really what the book is about. Or, it is. It is and it isn't, because there's so much more here. The story covers a long period of time, starting in Bronwen's junior year, when she runs into Jared at a coffee shop and their relationship begins. The marriage proposal doesn't come until past the halfway mark of this book, meaning that while it's easy to think of this as a story about a wedding, it's actually a love story that starts at the very beginning. Bronwen is a well-developed protagonist who's a lot different from a lot of main characters I've read lately. The issues she's dealing with in the book are ones that I haven't previously seen handled in YA (and haven't seen handled well at all) and McCahan pulls it off. Bronwen is smart, loving, and kind, but also very confused and - dare I say it? - neglected. Jared, on the other hand, is anything but confused and neglected. He's kind, loving, quietly funny, and knows who he is and what he wants much better than Bronwen does. The relationship between them is portrayed wonderfully, and though it sometimes seems too perfect, this is easy to forgive. The unrealistic parts are balanced nicely by the too realistic parts of this book.

As for Bronwen's family - her super-polite mother, kind stepfather, and considered-perfect brother - there's a lot there. And a lot of it isn't good. Though I loved her stepfather, Whitt, and loved the story of their relationship, it's difficult for me to name a character I hate as much as I hate Bronwen's mother. The relationship her and Bronwen share has all the tension and emotional baggage that mother/daughter relationships come with, except that the mom in this case is also absolutely horrible in the most subtle, rage-inducing ways that often don't come out until near the end of the book.

My biggest issue with this book is the pacing. Everything was floating along at a nice, leisurely pace until the point when Jared proposed, and then it was like we were zooming along at double speed. In a way this makes sense because of how busy Bronwen's life suddenly became and all that was happening, but at the same time I felt like we covered a huge amount of time (about two years) in too short a space (less than half the book). There were some times, especially when it came to Bronwen's post-high-school life, that I wanted to take more time with and know more about. In the end a lot seemed like an infodump, like meeting up with an old friend you haven't seen in years and catching up on everything going on in your lives in a twenty-minute coffee stop. I wanted more.

The ending here is incredibly open-ended, a little too vague for my tastes, but I don't think it will make people too angry the way a more definitive ending might have. I know it sounds like a cop-out, but there's really no way to end this book leaving everyone happy, and I think the author did a good job of it in spite of that. Bottom line: this is a great book. It's more than what you expect, covers issues I wasn't expecting, and manages to be a traditional-style love story while also being more than that.

Debut Review: The Lonely Hearts Club

THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB
Elizabeth Eulberg

This book was quite win. After the boy she's loved since forever breaks her heart, Penny Lane Bloom (named for the song) decides that all guys are jerks and vows not to date. At least, not until she's done with high school. She starts a Lonely Hearts Club with herself as the sole member. However, when her recently dumped ex-best-friend wants to join, the club and its mission of female empowerment becomes bigger than just Penny Lane. Soon other girls, either broken-hearted or just disillusioned by the  less-than-stellar guys around them, join the club. And Penny Lane finds that she's started a revolution. But of course, swearing off love is more difficult than it seems, especially when Penny Lane finds a guy who genuinely seems to like her and reminds her that not all guys are jerks.

Penny Lane is a stubborn and determined heroine, convinced that every guy is The Enemy. Her harsh attitude would get old quickly, but it soon mellows out and we're reminded that she's angry because she's hurt, because her fairytale came crashing down around her. The way that this particular part of the book is written felt spot-on and was a place of genuine sadness and regret in an otherwise fun and cute story. The characters here were fun and relateable, but, with a few exceptions, not especially original, and there's a large cast of girls in The Lonely Hearts Club that we never get the chance to know. However the book's real triumph is in its relationships. More specifically, the friendship shared by the members of Penny Lane's Lonely Hearts Club. Though there are a lot of characters we don't know much about, the friendship between the three  main girls is positive and realistic while the club as a whole has a very supportive and upbeat atmosphere. These girls are in different grades, have different interests and previously existed in separate social circles, but thanks to the club they come together as friends and learn to support each other even while having differing opinions. Honestly this is one of the best depictions of friendship that I've come across lately and I definitely wanted to jump into the book so that I could be a part of the fabulous Lonely Hearts Club.

The romance aspect lacked spark; the boy (whose name I won't spoil for you) was nice, normal, and sometimes funny, but seemed boring at times. I wanted the feisty Penny Lane to end up with someone more spectacular and it's a good thing the love story here plays second-fiddle to the larger, more important story of the girls' friendship and self-discovery. While the setting is fairly standard - a nondescript high school - Penny Lane's love for and obsession with The Beatles carries over into the rest of the book. From the title and cover to quotes inside the book and many, many Beatles references, the mood of this book perfectly matches that of the British invasion music. Though the ending of this book felt a little too perfect for me, the story is adorable, Penny Lane is a cheer-worthy protagonist, and the many musical references made me want to hug this adorable, wonderful book.

Debut Review: The Mockingbirds

THE MOCKINGBIRDS
Daisy Whitney

Alex Patrick should remember her first time, but she doesn't. She doesn't remember ending up in his bedroom, doesn't remember having sex, doesn't even remember that his name is Carter. When she's date-raped after a concert at first she just wants to forget it ever happened, pretend everything is fine. But then the boy starts spreading rumors, everyone thinks she wanted it to happen, and now Alex wants justice. She wants her life back. She wants to be free to eat in the cafeteria again and play her favorite song without feeling the horror of that night. But at Themis Academy, a utopia for the best and brightest, the faculty believes their students to be perfect. Perfect grades, perfect lives, and perfect behavior. Alex doesn't want to get the police involved, so she goes to The Mockingbirds, the somewhat-underground justice system her older sister founded years earlier. The Mockingbirds will help her. They'll protect her. They'll bring the accused to trial, because the Mockingbirds are law at Themis Academy.

This book has an incredible premise, but none of that matters if the writing and the plot can't live up to that promise. Fortunately, the plot of this book is finely crafted, winding almost seamlessly from point A to point B and everywhere in between. The protagonist, Alex, is a talented pianist in love with Ode to Joy - a piece of music that becomes tainted after this night. Her confusion, pain, and anger come through loud and clear, grabbing the reader with the first sentence and refusing to let go. Alex's story is about rape, but more than that it's about standing up for what's right, about justice, about a code of honor and right against wrong. It's about being brave and tough when those are the last things you feel like you can be. The supporting cast of this book - Alex's older sister, her roommates, key members of the Mockingbirds, and even Carter himself - are all amazingly well-written. Each character is there for a reason and each character, even the most minor, have distinct personalities that make them stand out. The cast of characters here is fairly large, but it's written in the most manageable way possible and the dynamics that exist between certain characters, such as Alex and her roommates, add additional layers and depth to the story.

The prestigious and seemingly perfect Themis Academy is wonderful, enchanting, and vaguely creepy at the same time, and I loved it. This is not a book "about" setting, but it is one where the setting plays a vital role and it works to the advantage of the story as a whole. The book is inspired by To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, and as in that book the trial plays a big part here. Because of this the messages in this issue-heavy book are often at the forefront, stated very clearly and obviously in a way that would be annoying or insulting in any other context. However, because so much of the story is focused on justice in a very real way, it works. Not only does it work, but it works so well that some of the most issue-heavy, heeere's the moral! passages were the best in the book.

For me, everything came together in THE MOCKINGBIRDS. Alex's voice was true-to-life and full of emotion; the writing was amazing; the ending was nearly pitch-perfect. This book, to be honest, blew me away. I had high hopes and nervous expectations after hearing some really great things about it, and those hopes were left in the dust. This book is spectacular. Incredible. I can't recommend it enough.

Debut Review: The Duff

THE DUFF

Kody Keplinger

In an attempt to escape her crappy home situation, cynical and snarky Bianca Piper begins a no-strings-attached enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley Rush, the infuriating guy who informs her that in her group of friends, she's the Duff. The designated. ugly. fat. friend. The premise here is interesting and refreshing, a brand-new take on the age-old themes of self-esteem issues and romance. Except in this story, far from being a hopeless romantic, Bianca doesn't believe in love. At least, not for teenagers, not after getting hurt years earlier by a guy she truly cared about. While I really liked the idea of this premise, the plot didn't quite match up. The story moves at a nice pace, but ends up seeming very bare bones -- as if there was supposed to be more happening than we actually saw. There are a few very important subplots here, including her screwy family life and the self-esteem issues she has around her two best friends after being called "the duff." Ultimately though, the friendship issues are hardly explored until near the end of the book, and though her family's situation rapidly deteriorates, it's really not all that bad when she begins her fling with Wesley. Her mother is gone a lot (a lot), but Bianca honestly doesn't seem to care except for the hurt her dad is feeling, and I think this would have played out so much better if we'd been able to know Bianca's family a bit better. Our main character is such a jaded, cynical girl that even though we know she cares about her family and friends we only know this because we're told -- it rarely ever comes through fully in her actions or words.

I'm sure many readers will like the cynical Bianca Piper, but for me it was a bit too much. She crossed the line between snarky and mean too often and though she obviously cared deeply about what was going on with her dad, in most respects she was very self-absorbed, opinionated, and judgmental. Despite the fact that I actually liked many of the secondary characters, including her two best friends, I couldn't help wondering why they would hang out with Bianca, who continually avoided them, blew them off, lied to them, and ignored them. As someone who's had too many friends who did that exact thing, this rubbed me the wrong way. I realize, of course, that the main character and her relationships in this book weren't meant to be sweet, happy, and worthy of a cheesy romantic comedy, but going so far in the other direction pushed me away. There are a few wonderful scenes between Bianca and her dad (one in particular), but their relationship is never explored enough to really make it stand out or outweigh many of the other relationships in the book.

There are quite a few themes here, most of them related to labels (such as "duff" and "slut") and self-esteem issues. While these are good messages and I'd love to read more books dealing with them, the way they were handled here didn't make them appealing. The themes are heavy-handed and far too obvious, culminating in this feeling like A Book With A Message. However, despite being annoying, the handling of the themes fits in perfectly with Bianca's in-your-face personality and narrative voice.

But, okay, let's take a break from all this negativity. The setting here? Impressive. Though the always-bland school setting detracts from it a bit, the contrast between Wesley and Bianca's houses plainly shown without being over-the-top or in-your-face.

All-in-all, this book with the so-cute cover was a disappointment. Important relationships seemed skimmed over. Bianca was unlikeable in many ways; despite the family issues the book had no emotional resonance, and the themes were overwrought. Though the premise was new and refreshing, and the setting was well-written, it wasn't enough to carry -- or save -- the book.