Pie Chart - Books I Heart

A VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS*

*From my Goodreads shelves.

Review - Stay

STAY
Deb Caletti
Simon Pulse

At first, everything is amazing. Christian is gorgeous and super-attentive, exactly the sort of guy Clara wants to be with. That is, until his devotion to her grows into something else and he becomes more possessive and jealous, eventually stalking her after she breaks it off with him. Now, Clara and her dad have rented a summer house on the beach just to get away from him. In this little town, completely cut off from her old life, Clara hopes Christian will stay away from her for good, but her overwhelming fear makes her wonder if the distance between them will really stop his obsession.

I felt like this book was the anti-thesis to all the my-boyfriend-loves-me-so-much-he-stalks-me, Twilight-esque books out there. Clara and Christian have an intense relationship right from the get; there's an instant connection and the word soul mates is tossed around almost carelessly. They "love" each other. They're completely wrapped up in each other. However, as their relationship grows, so does Christian's jealousy. He doesn't want Clara to talk to other guys, look at other guys. He checks up on her when they're not together, just to make sure she's where she said she would be and not cheating on him. He gets angry too easily and this anger fades into a desperate neediness too quickly. When they break up and he starts stalking her, the fear is palpable. He emails, calls, and shows up at her house uninvited.

The story switches between past and present, telling the story of their relationship simultaneously with what happens after Clara and her father move to the sea for the summer to get away from him. While I wished that the past/present sections were marked, the story flowed well enough that it wasn't jarring for me. There's a lot of descriptive language in this book and a lot of times I felt like it slowed the story down, but at the same time there was so much tension in the story and this balanced out the slowness of it to a good degree.

The setting of the sea plays a bit part of this book and it's written beautifully. Though the overriding symbolism of the ghosts seemed a bit overplayed at times, the actual setting and atmosphere of the seaside town Clara and her father come to is great, as is the various ways that this setting plays into the plot of the story.

Clara and her dad have exactly the sort of father-daughter relationship I've been waiting for in YA. There's an obvious love and ease between them; when Christian starts going crazy, Dad is right there for Clara; he even even changes their life around to give both his daughter and himself some peace of mind. The relationship between them is so easy and such a huge part of the book, which I absolutely loved this. While there were some revelations near the end that I was unprepared for and that at first felt out of place, these things came together and made perfect sense by the conclusion. Things here are, thankfully, not tied up so neatly with a bow and while I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending, which felt rushed and a bit too easy compared with the rest of the story, I do like how Caletti left things overall.

I didn't expect to, but I loved this book. Love love love. It's lyrical and creepy, all-too-honest and believable, and written with such great tension and realistic characters. As I said earlier, I definitely recommend it for those readers who have grown disenchanted with the insta-love of many YA novels.

*ARC sent by publisher for review.

TEN THINGS ON WEDNESDAY

1. One of my classes this week met at BN in the children's section and one of the girls made some comment about how lame it is for 20-somethings to be sitting in the children's section. Hmmph.
2. I keep having to fold clothes. Because I keep doing laundry. I swear, I never think these things through.
3. At this point my novel is basically a scramble of chapters that don't really flow from one to the other because OMG YOU GUYS, DUAL POV IS HAAARD. Also one of my main characters kind of has a potty mouth. OMG.
4. I am in love love love with this picture book. LOVE, I TELL YOU.
5. Reason #53 I love Twitter: a few weeks back I had a conversation with ALLY CARTER (!!!) and an editor from Egmont (!!!) about Friday Night Lights. How else could that ever ever happen?
6. And speaking of Friday Night Lights, I tried so hard to watch the movie. It had Tim McGraw in it! And Connie Britton! And that guy who plays Buddy Garrity! But... I fell asleep. Partly this is because I was super-tired and partly because the movie just wasn't that interesting to me. 
7. Also, I recently watched about half of The Switch, which also wasn't interesting to me and I ended up watching The Cosby Show instead. (The Pixar Story, on the other hand, is great. Definitely recommended for all of us creative types.)
8. Have listened to "The Golden Age" by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour about forty times in the last couple of days. It's the song from that beer commercial with the magician/dancer guy and the karate man. And it's awesome.
9. A while back my mom bought me a dream journal, but I keep forgetting to write in it in spite of having incredibly detailed (and often very weird or terrifying or... bizarre) dreams. I would tell you about them because I really believe my dreams are interesting, but I'm trying to remember that the rest of the world maybe doesn't agree. BUT THEY SO ARE.
10. I really want to watch iOMG. 

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.

YEAH!

EDITING EDITING YEAH!

EDITING EDITING YEAH!*

*This, of course, must be sung to the tune of Friday. SORRY SO SORRY.

Giveaway, Yo.

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ENTER MY BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY GIVEAWAY.

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.