Dope Sick-- Walter Dean Myers

Lil' J is a good kid... mostly. In some ways he is a product of location and circumstance, but in the end, aren't we all responsible for our own choices? When a bad bad decision leads to life-threatening a situation, Lil' J hides away in an abandoned warehouse hoping that somehow he will make it out alive. He didn't expect to meet Kelly, a squatter who eerily knows details about Lil' J's past and future... and can show them on his TV set. While this is realistic fiction, a small element of sci-fi is seamlessly blended in, and it makes for a much richer story.

I really enjoyed this book. I love how Myers uses street slang dialog in a way that people who are unfamiliar with it can still understand the conversations. Also, while the story does have a resolution, there is no pretending that all things end up perfectly. This is where Myers excels... he writes that perfect blend of hope and realism that doesn't read as fake and impossible. Guys and girls who like urban fiction will enjoy this book. I can't wait for this book to come out in paperback so I can purchase it for the Juvie boys... they will love it!

A Blast of Books!

So the past two weeks have included several hours of flying to two different destinations... which means I had a lot of time to read! I thought I would try something new and write a brief blurb about each book, rather than an extended entry like I usually do... this way I can touch on all the things I read.

Willow-- Julia Hoban



One night Willow's parents, internationally famous anthropologists, drank too much wine at dinner. They asked their teenage daughter, Willow, to drive them home from dinner. Willow lost control of the vehicle and they both died. Willow survived, but is completely emotionally destroyed by the accident. The only way she feels alive and safe is through cutting, that is until an exceptional boy comes along. Perfect for fans of Cut.

My opinion: bleck on the knight in shining armor thing, also it's a bit awkwardly written. However, I know teen girls will eat this one up.

The Compound-- S.A. Bodeen



The Compound is a near-futuristic sci-fi tome that is told from the perspective of 15 year old Eli. He and his family have been living underground in an extraordinary bomb shelter after his billionaire computer genius dad (think Bill Gates) gets word of nuclear attack and rushes his family to the compound he had the foresight to build. Perfect for fans of Life as We Knew It, and even The Host.

My Opinion: Great for both boys and girls. It's definitely a page-turner, but at the end I was left wanting more (could be a good thing?). I could tell this is the authors first novel; she could work on her craft a bit, but it was an enjoyable first book.

Karma for Beginners-- Jessica Blank (no released cover yet)

Tessa's mom is one of those wandering types who bounces from town to town looking for meaning and inspiration-- mostly through men. When she moves them to an ashram in the Catskills and becomes deeply involved with the Guru, Tessa is left on her own. She meets a boy who introduces her to all forms of debaucherous escapism, and tries to find her own meaning for existence before she gets carried away by the desires of others. Fans of Patron Saint of Butterflies, and maybe Outside Beauty might like this book.

My Opinion: Meh. Not terrible, not great. I don't see this particular book being very popular with it's intended audience.

Secrets of Truth and Beauty-- Megan Frazer

This is Dara's story. She was once a child beauty pageant princess, but has grown into adolescence as a pretty but quite overweight teen. After a tragic (in that petty highschool way) incident, and a complete lack of compassion from her parents, Dara travels to find her long lost lesbian sister, who is shunned by the family and lives on a goat farm. This is a story of self-discovery, overcoming life's challenges, and beauty in all forms.

My Opinion: There are a lot of stories about the overweight teen girl finding her voice and confidence these days. See an older post with a list for more. Still, I did find this fairly original and I think girls will like it. Thankfully the ending wasn't toooo schmaltzy.

Girl in the Arena-- Lise Haines


Lyn is the daughter of seven gladiators... kindof. Lyn's family is a part of the Neo-Gladiator culture, and her mother has watched seven of her husbands, therefore seven of Lyn's fathers, be killed in the arena. After the seventh man dies, and Lyn's mother severely falls apart, it's up to Lyn to pull them through. Ceasar's inc, the corporation that runs the Neo-Glads, is corrupt and putting everything Lyn holds dear on the line for money and publicity. When it comes to fighting to the death to save her family, Lyn feels prepared to do so... unless her techie best friend can come up with a way to save her.

My Opinion: I liked this book. I won't rave and wax poetic about it ala Hunger Games, but it was good. Not perfectly written, but I predict this will be very popular with teens. It's a teeny bit sci-fi, but mostly realistic fiction. Although the main character is female, I think both boys and girls will enjoy it.

King of the Screwups-- K. L. Going

Liam Geller is everyone's best friend. He throws the best parties, has a supermodel mother, and always gets the girl. People can't hate him because he's just such a nice guy. It's like friends and popularity fall right into his lap...

The only person who doesn't think this is great is his father. Liam's dad is a high-powered banker who has no need for his socially advanced but scholastically lacking son. In fact, it seems like every opportunity he has to finally win his father's love, Liam epically fails and embarrasses his dad publicly. After an incident involving booze, a hot girl, and his father's desk in his office, Liam is sent away to live with family. If Liam can't reform his uber-popular party boy ways, he'll be sent to boot camp.

Liam's only saving grace is that his mother sends him to live with Aunt Pete, his cross-dressing glam-rocking Uncle who lives in a trailer park in nowheresville. If Liam can succeed there, he can succeed anywhere... but the question remains, will Liam win his father's love or will he only win the crown of the King of the Screwups?

I won't lie to you... I enjoyed this book but didn't love it. If it were written by any other author I might just accept it for what it is, but this is K. L. Going, author of awesomeness like Saint Iggy and Fat Kid Rules the World! This is basically a fluff book with a good heart, and we all need some of those books, but I have to admit I was left wanting for a bit more. Either way, I would recommend this to girls and guys who like K. L. Going, Tim Tharpe's Spectacular Now, James St. James's Freakshow, or Meagan Brothers' Debbie Harry Sings in French.

Rage: A Love Story-- Julie Anne Peters

So there I was in my office, opening my big stack of mail and low and behold, a big stack of ARCs (Advance Reading Copies of books... you know the sneak peaks of books librarians sometimes get) had arrived! AND ever better, there was a book by one of my favorite YA authors, Julie Anne Peters! I audibly yelped for joy and then proceeded to read the book cover to cover on an airplane over the weekend... but remember folks, just because a book is a page-turner doesn't mean it's amazing...

Johanna is a smart, responsible girl. She took care of her mother when she was sick and dying, she constantly watches out for her party-girl best friend, works hard for good grades and pocket money, and hopes to go to college and get on with her life. Honestly, she's pretty vanilla-bland-whitebread, except for her secret fantasies about Reeve Hartt.

Reeve is fierce, uglybeautiful, violent, passionate, and basically the opposite of Johanna. When Johanna gets conned into tutoring Reeve's brother, Johanna pursues Reeve until she just can't say no any longer. Their relationship is tumultuous to say the least, and full of challenges due to Reeve's abysmal home life and violent, erratic behavior. Don't expect a picture perfect happy ending (who would, with a title like Rage: a love story?), but the book does resolve itself in an acceptable way.

So what's my problem with this book? I just didn't love it. I feel like Peters is starting to rely on some old familiar tricks. I saw a lot of similarities between this book and Define Normal (the tutoring, the alternative chick, the "normal" chick etc) and also Far From Xanadu (the wild amazing pixie girl love interest). Also, although the story is narrated by Johanna, I couldn't get a good mental picture of who she was. I did, however, feel very intrigued by Reeve's story and would have preferred to hear about it from her perspective. Am I let down because I have too high of standards for this particular author (I *loved* Far From Xanadu), or was the book just not that great?

I would offer this book to teens who want books with gay characters (that isn't a coming out story), less than perfect love stories, or books about screwed up families.

Marcelo in the Real World-- Francisco X. Stork

Marcelo has a few special interests: he loves horses, classical music, and religious theory. He lives in a tree-house in his parent's back yard, wears blue pants with a white button-up shirt every day, and cannot feel emotion the same way most people do. Oh, and he hears intensely beautiful music in his head, which he calls internal music, and because of this most people think he has Asperger Syndrome. He doesn't; he just lives in a world that's pretty different than the one most people live in, and it's easier on people like you and me to label him in some way.

Marcelo's father hates that his kid is "special." His father, Arturo, is a high-powered attorney and wants Marcelo to work at his law firm for the summer... to join the real world, and to normalize before he sends to him the regular public high school instead of the small special school Marcelo was previously attending. While working in the mail room at the law firm, Marcelo finds that he can feel emotion he never knew existed, and meets people who challenge his ways of thinking. When an issue of morals and good choices arises, Marcelo must decide what to do: should he protect his father's career and pretend that he has no knowledge of the situation, or should he fix the problem at his own family's expense.

Honestly, it's hard to summarize this book. Most of what makes it so good is the way it's written and how the characters relate to each other. I read this soon after I read Anything but Typical, and while they are different stories, it's hard not to compare them in my head as the characters have similar cognitive issues. Anything but Typical was more well-written, but Marcelo in the Real World was much more moving. Has anyone read both, and what did you think of them?

I would recommend this book to fans of Anything but Typical, Curious Incident of the Dog in the night-time, and even Wendy Mass's A Mango Shaped Space.

Mortal Instruments Trilogy-- Cassandra Clare

So you might have noticed I haven't blogged since early last week... and for that I do apologize... but I swear it was for a good reason! I kinda fell down a rabbit hole and couldn't come back out until I ate the Mortal Instruments books for dinner. And boy were they yummy!

Book 1: City of Bones



Meet Clary Fray, a teenage girl who lives with her mother in Brooklyn. For most of her life, things have seemed rather ordinary, until one day she witnesses three tattooed teens murder another teen... but when the murdered teen's body literally disappears before her eyes, Clary knows something supernatural is going on. Mysteries pile up, her mother is abducted, and out of the blue Clary is attacked by something preternaturally evil... a demon. Almost dizzyingly fast, she discovers there is a band of Shadowhunters, a race of beings akin to angels, whose whole purpose in life is to slay demons. Think Buffy but without the vampires... well not entirely without vampires, but I don't want to give too much away. Clary and her best friend Simon befriend a small group of Shadowhunters and try to find Clary's mother... learning that Clary was born into this life in a way she never knew before.

Book 2: City of Ashes



In this book we dive more deeply into the world of the Shadowhunters. Clary and her friends unravel a larger plot of evil than they earlier expected. Her mother's disappearance is not random; a Voldemort-like villain named Valentine is trying to gather the mortal instruments so he can call upon the Arch Angel and purify the race of Shadowhunters once and for all. Clary is slowly falling in love with Jace, her Shadowhunting partner, and while he returns her feelings, there is a major moral and social issue that keeps their love contained. While many second books in a trilogy serve as only a bridge between the first and third, City of Ashes definitely holds its own and drives the reader frantically to the third book.

Book 3: City of Glass



As Clary is learning to control her Shadowhunting power, the rest of her friends travel through a portal to find the last clue which will lead them to Valentine. Although they were trying to protect Clary who has little experience fighting demons, Clary is determined to find a way to defeat Valentine so she can find her mother and basically save the entire human race. Teaming up with the Children of the Night (Vampires), and the Children of the Moon (Werewolves), Clary battles to the death to save the world as she knows it. Twists and turns in the plot will keep readers motivated, and let's be honest, the battle scenes are pretty awesome too.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series. Although some of the elements of this urban fantasy tome were not original, they still felt fresh because the characters were so multidimensional. No one has good intentions 100% of the time, and even the uber-villain, Valentine, can almost seduce you into believing he has the universe's best intentions at heart. Clare touches on some taboo topics in these books, and I admire her dedication to her story, even if there are elements some people might not like. I would recommend these books to fans of supernatural and urban fantasy.

The Chosen One-- Carol Lynch Williams

The Prophet is not questioned. The Word Of God is not disputed. The Prophet only speaks words that God has given him in a vision. God told The Prophet that 13 year-old Kyra is to be her 60 year-old Uncle Hyrum's 7th wife.

Kyra has spent her entire life in an isolated community of fundamentalists. She spends her days working their tiny plot of earth, taking care of her 20 brothers and sisters, and finding moments to sneak away and discover herself. One day she happens upon the Ironton County Mobile Library on Wheels... and she learns there is a world beyond the fences that surround their property. When The Prophet decrees she is to marry her Uncle Hyrum, everything in Kyra's mind and body rebels. But no matter what she does, her plan to escape this fate is thwarted. When she is left with the choice to either destroy her family but save herself, or stay and marry her old uncle, she is more than conflicted. Who could choose rationally when faced with violence, abuse, and the though of losing everyone and everything you know forever.

I have to say, I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was well-written and very engaging. There were parts of the plot that were semi-unbelievable, but that is to be expected out of a book that covers such taboo topics. I would recommend this book to teens who like the T.V. show Big Love, and who enjoyed books like The Patron Saint of Butterflies.