The Imperfection of My Reviews

So recently I read this book and OH MY GOODNESS, it was sort of like listening to Band of Horses and drinking hot chocolate with salt and caramel. In other words, I loved it. If I'd reviewed the book according to how I felt about it, there would have probably just been a picture of me hugging the book. Because there are those books you just want to hug, right? (I am not crazy.)

The thing is though, I try hard not to review books based purely on how I felt about them, because not only is it often hard to turn feelings to words, but more importantly, I'm not reviewing just for me. I'm reviewing for other readers who may or may not have the same tastes as I do, who might know nothing about the book, who might love that book or might love one that I couldn't stand. I don't want to say this book was good and this book was bad, but rather here's what you should know about this book and here's what I thought was done well, not well, different, etc. This means that even when I absolutely love a book the review is sometimes/often more neutral, more... even-keeled.

If the pace is slow, I mention that. If the writing style is one not everyone will appreciate, I mention that. Same if the dialogue feels stilted or subplots feel contrived.

But I'm also going to mention if the relationships are great, if there's a well-written family element, if the writing is beautiful. And often, for me, these things will far outweigh the weaker points. But I'm not every reader; I'm just me. Which means that the books I love don't always get perfect reviews. And the ones I don't love sometimes get better reviews than I'd give if I were going off of just how I feel about the book.

This doesn't mean my reviews aren't honest, because they are, 100%. But they're also more logical and thought-out than how I instinctively feel toward the books. They're critical. The books I absolutely love, regardless of review, are in bold over here. (And, of course, on my ace-list shelf on Goodreads.)

And what about you, fellow book bloggers? Do your reviews always reflect how you feel about a book or is there sometimes discrepancy?

In My Mailbox: & some other stuff.

BOOKS.

Gift: Strangely, two authors sent me copies of their books this week. One is an ARC with a note that I don't have to review it (which is why it's listed as a gift instead of review copy) and the other's a hardcover of a book I'd actually recommended on that other blog I had for about a month earlier this year (REMEMBER???) and then talked about a lot on this blog. 

Review: This one is a bit awkward because I was CRAZY EXCITED to get this book in the mail -- I'd been looking forward to reading it for quite a while -- but ended up not finishing it. A well-written book that just didn't click with me, though I'm sure it will with others.

Bought: First of all, my used bookstore finally got Water for Elephants in, which my mom and I both want to read. It's sort of cheating including it because it's technically my mom's book, but still, I'm definitely going to read it. And second of all... Coke or Pepsi 3. YA writers (aspiring or published or what-have-you), these Coke or Pepsi books (I have the two previous ones as well) are excellent excellent for getting to know your teenage characters. The questions in them aren't the hefty things you MUST think about when writing a character's story, but the smaller and more entertaining details that make for a convincing, non-cookie-cutter character. I absolutely love them.

OTHER STUFF.

You may have also noticed there's a new page on my blog, for books I'm trying to get rid of. I hesitated on doing this for quite a while, but I now have a couple of piles of books stacked on top of my bookcase that I know I'm just not going to end up reading or rereading or I have more than one copy. Some of the books (recent releases I was sent for review) I really want to go to other bloggers who have an interest in reviewing them, but older copies, books I bought myself, books that came in any way other than for review, are up for anyone. 

I know there are other bloggers who periodically do trade lists and if you want to link to my blog feel free. Wait. I mean if you want me to link to your list, leave the link in the comments here (or on the page itself) and I can link to others from my trade page. If that makes any sense at all.

Review: After the Kiss

AFTER THE KISS
Terra Elan McVoy
Simon Pulse

Though Camille and Becca have never met, their lives become intertwined when Camille kisses Becca's boyfriend, Alec. For Becca, the kiss signals the end of her relationship while it unmoors Camille, who has gotten good at not setting down roots as her family is constantly picking up and moving. Written in split POV with both verse (Becca) and second-person stream-of-consciousness narration (Camille), the book explores the kiss from both girls' viewpoints as they deal with what comes after.

Since the kiss seems to be the jumping-off point for both girls' stories, I was surprised that it didn't come until over 100 pages into the novel. The characters and writing style kept me reading up until that point, however McVoy's unique writing is both positive and negative: it was interesting, but second-person narration usually reads a bit weird and takes some getting used to even in the best of hands. Becca's verses read more like prose split into lines, but I'm partial enough to novels-in-verse that this was okay with me. The story really takes off when Camille and Alec kiss and from there the girls' stories twine together in an interesting way as Camille's new hangout is the coffee shop that Becca works at. The two strike up a strangely unique relationship though I was disappointed that there was never any sort of recognition or confrontation between them.

This book sets itself apart from many books with similar cheating-boyfriend themes because not only is Alec not much of a character, but more importantly Camille has no idea he has a girlfriend. The writing style at first creates a distance between the characters and the reader, but after a while this distance went away and I felt very much as if I were standing in Camille-and-Becca's shoes as they dealt with life. Though I personally related a bit more to Camille, both characters are strong and reading about Becca's job and senior-year newspaper are some of the highlights of the book. Both girls are dealing with heartbreak -- Becca over Alec, and Camille over an unnamed boy she had to leave with her family's most recent move. Camille's heartbreak, strangely, seems more deeply felt than Becca's, but that might just be my own bias. Both girls are also dealing with family issues as Camille's parents' constant moving has her unmoored and unable to connect with others while Becca's parents' divorce has left her living alone with her mother while her older brother is away at college. The issues the characters are dealing with are strange mirror images of each other and I loved the various themes -- family, love, friendship, and money. The writing styles make everything a bit hazy and there were times when I found myself wishing the story were written in a more straight-forward manner -- I missed scenes and dialogue here, but in the end I have to say that this style of writing actually helped the book. Reading the character's unique POVs brings the reader much closer to them, as if reading a journal or private blog, even if it distances from the rest of the story. It makes the emotions of the story that much stronger and in a story built on turbulent and deeply-felt emotions, this is important.

It took a while to adjust to this book, but once I did I couldn't stop reading. It's understated and complex, different and heartfelt. I definitely recommend it, especially for those readers who like more experimental writing.

Behind the Books

One of the things I love about books are the stories they carry, not between the covers on the pages, but in the space around them. The stories not of why they were written or what lies inside, but just how that particular copy of that particular book came to sit on my shelves, taking up bookspace amongst all the other books. There are many books, of course, that just appeared as review books, no backstory, and many others that I bought at one point or another, no big story there either.

But there are some - more than a few - with stories that I hold to, that I love. Books that carry memories. And because I just finished reading one such book (After the Kiss, by Terra Elan McVoy), I decided I'd share a few of those stories-books-memories.

The story that goes with Matched is not really much of a story at all, but more of a feeling. I had a night class that got out at, I don't know, 9:30 or 10 maybe. It was on Tuesdays, after a full day of classes, and I was always tired when I got out, eager to get home. Matched was a book I'd been hearing about for months and the funny thing was the premise was one so close to something I'd thought I might write someday and it was this mixture of but-I-wanted-to-write-that and oh-now-I-don't-have-to-I-can-just-read-it and of course, there are infinite stories, infinite ideas. An in the middle of all these thoughts I really, really wanted to read the book. It had just come out maybe a couple weeks before, maybe less, and I was driving home from class and thought okay, maybe I'll just stop at Wal-Mart and maybe they'll have it and if they don't I can get something else, a paperback that'll be cheaper anyways. But Matched was there and even though it was pretty much all the money I had, I still had to buy it. So at 10-whatever, after a day of classes, with practically no money left in my wallet, I was pretty much as happy as I could be because I had this book I'd been wanting so badly and there's really few feelings better than buying the exact book you really, really want.

It was the last day of the Midwinter ALA meeting and I knew the floor was only open for a few hours, but I really really wanted to go back the last day. So me and my sister drove down and she went to some shops while I went to ALA. I was coming at the convention center from a different direction and got a little lost. I ran into a woman equally as lost and after a few locked doors we finally found our way into the building and then got on the elevator, eventually finding out we were both there for the same thing. She was a children's librarian and we got to talking about books and then the Newbery in particular (my favorite literary award) and she told me she'd been selected for the next year's Newbery Committee and I had a little fangirly moment like omg that's so exciting! Meeting her was the highlight of ALA for me and then I got to the floor and it was a little bittersweet because all of the pub people were packing up, but they were also selling the display copies so I found the Penguin people and was able to snag up the last copy of Anna and the French Kiss. Now the book itself, aside from being one of my absolute favorites, reminds me of ALA and that last day in particular - meeting the librarian, getting lost, showing up just as everything was slowing down, being so sad and so happy at having been able to attend in the first place and to have a tiny tiny place in the amazing world of children's publishing.

Every year  - or twice a year, whichever - I go to the children's hospital and feel too big and too old and the x-ray tech looks at me funny because they're fairly confused about how old I am (I look young) and why I'm there when it's a children's hospital. But I go and I have tests and sit in a small room and try not to get too anxious as I wait to talk to my doctor and see how my heart is doing. Whatever the news is, however good, it always freaks me out and never quite sounds good enough. I've gotten really good at not being too anxious but definitely being nervous and having to remind myself that if something were really wrong wouldn't I know it? I'm very good at reminding myself that I'm doing fine, but then I go to the doctor and there are all these small children with big complicated problems and my heart breaks a little for them and anyway, my last appointment was one that went just as planned, which is to say it went well and I got a clean bill of health. After I left that hospital I went to the one my mom works at and told her how it went and then went across the street to Barnes & Noble because after doing something difficult I like to head back to the mothership, which for me is any bookstore, anywhere. This is the book I picked up and the tiny chalky hearts on the cover are so appropriate.

I have so many other books with so many other stories. Maybe another time I will tell those stories also. For now I ask you, what are some of the best stories behind the books on your shelves?

Review: Trapped

TRAPPED
Michael Northrop
Scholastic Press

When Scotty stays after to help his buddies work on a shop class project, the three end up snowed in, trapped in the high school by a blizzard that just won't let up. Along with four other students, Scotty and his friends start to wait out the storm, thinking there's no way it can last until morning. But then it does. It lasts days and what starts as an adventure in living off of cold cafeteria food and sleeping on the hard floor of a classroom turns into a fight for survival and rescue.

Full Disclosure: the idea of being snowed in has always seemed terribly romantic to me. We can blame my love of winter or we can blame that one Baby-Sitters Club book, but either way part of the reason I wanted to read this book was just because it sounded cool, in a weird sort of way. (Obviously I wouldn't want to be fighting for survival, but a milder version perhaps.) Northrop's writing here is best described as dry. Scotty, as narrator, gives a play-by-play of all that happens and  the plot plays out in a very straight-forward manner. The book itself is a slow build that sometimes seems to be dragging unnecessarily on, but the reality of the predicament was strong enough to keep me reading. Because even if the characters don't always know how bad it is, the reader always does.

For a book that mostly consisted of seven teenagers trapped inside a high school, there was surprisingly little character development. While I found that odd, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing because the story here really is all about the situation and not the characters at all. Anyone could have been trapped in that school and the situation would have been the same. Scotty's voice is dry enough and sometimes wry enough to be entertaining, however there were parts of his personality and the characters' reactions as a whole that felt unrealistic. At one point Scotty is concerned about getting in trouble for breaking into the cafeteria to find food and I found myself thinking, really? That's your big concern? And while some of what the characters did as the storm wore on seemed pretty smart, I was surprised they didn't do more in the first couple of days. Though the radio they've found is running out of batteries and the school is dark once the lights cut out, nobody thinks of searching the classrooms and office for batteries and flashlights. These are things you could find in a school and the fact that they didn't even think of it felt very unrealistic. That said, despite the books faults it was a book I found entertaining and original. The story and set-up are strong, with plenty of realistic interactions and actions from the characters (compulsively checking their cells for service, for example) and a premise strong enough to carry through. The friendship Scotty shares with his two friends (Pete and Jason) was not explored in-depth, but was definitely deep enough to feel strong and real. There's the sense that these are characters who trust one another and are important to one another.

This sense that the other characters (at first Jason and Pete, but later all of them) are important to Scotty is one of the reasons I found myself so disappointed with the ending. I was expecting another chapter or an epilogue, but instead got a cliffhanger ending that leaves the reader to speculate on what happened next. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be obvious or not, but the non-ending was easily the biggest disappointment of the book. I liked the story and definitely enjoyed reading it, but the ending was completely unsatisfying.

July 2011 on the Blog

I reviewed:
A Friday Night Lights Companion
The Book Thief
Girl Parts
Chasing Redbird
BFF Breakup
Sass & Serendipity
The Detention Club

I also did the third part of the Favorites of 2011 (So Far) survey: the scenes and the random. Author Keris Stainton did a guest post on the differences between UK and US YA. I did a few discussion posts also, on the books I don't finish, Goodreads reviews, my average ratings on Goodreads, protagonist ages, and small towns in YA.

I also have a book trade list posted and wrote my own very personal post for the ending of Friday Night Lights.

Review: Populazzi

POPULAZZI
Elise Allen
Harcourt Children's Books

When Cara starts at a new school, her best friend Claudia presents her with The Ladder -- a foolproof plan for her to become the Supreme Populazzi (the most popular girl in school) -- that involves dating her way up the social tiers of high school. For some reason this premise, despite my belief that such divisive high school cliques are a thing of fiction -- really interested me. I've read plenty of loser-girl-tries-to-become-popular novels, but this was the first one that presented an actual plan, complete with binders full of research done by Cara's best friend. I was more than a little intrigued.

In spite of that, by all accounts I should have seriously disliked this novel, if not hated it. There was too much sex, too much drug use, and most of the characters had a way-too-cynical world view. The adults, while not nonexistent, were pretty awful, and Cara's social climbing is the sort of thing I really can't stand.

And yet. And yet I really really enjoyed this novel. The curly-haired, bubbly Cara is a character I was cheering for the entire time, even when she was making the most stupid decisions. Her personality is a little dorky and a little happy, but in order to climb the rungs of The Ladder, she has to squash her unique spirit and take on other personas -- the emo-girl, for instance -- and she does it, not because she especially wants to, but because her best friend is so gung-ho about the whole idea and because she believes the end will be worth it. When Cara's the Supreme Populazzi, things will change: she won't ignore the less-popular or make them feel invisible. Plus, she'll be noticed for once in her school years. After a scarring incident in kindergarten, her and Claudia have been branded losers forever, but nobody knows about that at Cara's new school. The incident in question is part of the overwhelming unbelievability of this book: the fact that not only would her classmates remember such a silly thing, but that it would be the way they still think of her after so many years rang completely false to me. So she peed her pants once when she was five, so what? In order to enjoy this book, you really have to let go and accept the preposterousness of certain things. And though I found Cara easy to root for, I also found her difficult to take at times. The Ladder isn't something she really wants to do at first, especially when she finds a Theater Geek boy she really likes and is able to be herself with -- but after he rejects her, she figures she has nothing left to lose and picks up right where she left off in pursuit of Nate, a soulful DangerZone bad boy that she thinks she can change. At first the fact that, yes, Cara honestly believed she could be the one to change Nate really grated on me. However, this starts to make sense later in the book as we learn more about Cara's home life and parents.

Up until now, Cara's life has been, as she explains it, painfully boring -- a fact that her mother and stepdad know, which seems to be a lot of the reason they trust her so much and why she's able to get away with so much in this book. What starts as some pretty innocent social-climbing quickly turns into Cara living a double life, morphing into an emo-girl, and doing things she never would have imagined with her new DangerZone boyfriend. All in the name of becoming one of the Populazzi. There's a lot of deception and manipulation going on here, but it's not only on the part of Cara. Her best friend seems to be even more invested in The Ladder than she is, which is a big part of the reason Cara continues to follow through with it, and when she does finally find her way into the coveted group, she finds girls and guys even more deceptive and manipulative than herself. But it's all worth it, she figures, to have a solid group of friends that are like sisters to her, and a hot Populazzi boyfriend. While all of this did bother me, the book and Cara's upward-and-downward spiral were insanely entertaining and surprisingly well-crafted. While the characters are labeled (Populazzi, Happy Hopeless, etc.) many of them have more depth than I'd expect. Each character -- from one guy who smokes pot to a girl who absolutely hates feeling so invisible -- has something in their history to help explain or make understandable their behavior and outlook.

At this point I have to mention the adults in the book. Cara's parents sort of disappear mysteriously near the end of the book, but up until that point they were an active force in her life. Usually this would be great, except for the fact that nearly every adult in this book is kind of awful. There's no wonder Cara and her peers are so messed up when these are their parents. It sounds harsh and I really don't want to spoil anything, but the tamest thing many of these parents do is enable teenage drunkenness. Cara's stepdad Karl is especially horrible -- in the oh-my-god-this-isn't-happening-nobody-actually-thinks-like-that sort of way, and his reactions and personality go a long way toward understanding why Cara does many of the things she does. The Cara we meet at the beginning of the book is not the girl who's there at the halfway point and it's this fall from grace that both irritated me and kept me reading -- as much as I didn't agree with anything she did and as much as I didn't buy many of the plot points in the novel, I keep rooting for Cara to find her way home, so to speak. She's a protagonist that, despite being incredibly flawed, is good at heart and worth rooting for.