Death and the Maiden or Girls in Trouble 2

As I've said in the past, a huge amount of YA books are about girls in trouble. Here are two books from the subset of girls in trouble that also deals with death.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (YA)

Hazel is dying. Actually, she's been dying for years from thyroid cancer. Although she has survived much longer than expected, she knows that someday soon she will die since the cancer has settled in her lungs as well. However, Hazel is not a character who is going to teach the reader about dying with grace. Instead, she's going to live as much as she can before she goes. She meets Augustus Waters, who is charming and handsome and loves the metaphor of putting a cigarette (the killing thing) in his mouth and not smoking it. Gus is extremely lovable, as is anyone who loves a good metaphor, and as an aside, he has also been touched by cancer, but was saved through amputating his leg. Gus will convince her to go to Amsterdam to meet the author of her favourite book, An Imperial Affliction, to ask him what happened to all the characters after the novel finished.

This is a love story, of course, and it is both funny and sad. I read this on a bus and alternated between crying and laughing all the way home. There are some beautiful passages, and the characters go to Amsterdam! I feel that never happens in books. I went there a few weeks ago as a graduation present to myself, and I think Green really captures how beautiful it is. I loved Gus for being enthusiastic and charming and witty. Finally, I loved Hazel, since although she is bitter and exhausted and depressed, she still notices the beauty in the world.

I loved this book, but I do have to mention that a coworker noted that she found it too similar to Looking For Alaska, Green's first book. I didn't feel the same way, probably because I've read some of Green's lighter works as well, but if that's the only other Green novel you've read you may be disappointed by it. I wasn't though.

This is a choice quote for those who love people taking about love.
" I'm in love with you, and I'm not the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you" (153)

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (YA)

Clay receives a box of tapes in which Hannah, a classmate and coworker, explains the 13 reasons why she committed suicide. Each of those reasons align with specific people, in a specific order, and everyone involved will receive the tapes in the same order and will get to hear Hannah tell their part in her story. If they don't listen to everything and pass the tapes on to the next person, then someone else will release the tapes to the public.

The overwhelming feeling from Hannah's story is that a teenage girl can be completely ostracized for having (or being perceived as having) any type of sex life.  Of course, Hannah hasn't really done anything, but her peers spread rumours and humiliate her every chance they get to the point where she feels completely alone.

One thing that really bothered me about this book, was that Clay was very different from the other people on the tapes. He had a serious crush on Hannah and he tried to reach out to her at a party and help her. In spite of this, he still gets pointed out as a reason why she killed herself . Obviously, this lets there be a sympathetic narrator who tries to understand Hannah and her pain, but it leaves the reader with the overwhelming feeling that Hannah is being cruel. For me, Hannah works better as an example of the consequences of  bullying and shaming girls than as a character, which isn't a good thing if half the story is in her own words. I raced through this book trying to figure out Hannah's secrets, but I just didn't love it.

Fortunately, this book wasn't really written for me. It was written for teens who feel alone, and for others who need to know that words can have serious consequences. It has a huge following and at least at my library, always seems to be out.

Fly Trap and The Mysterious Benedict Society

Fly Trap by Frances Hardinge          (Children's)

I absolutely loved the first book, Fly By Night. It had an incredibly original plot and a main character who was considered unlovable by those around her, but who the reader knew was a wonderful person. Mosca Mye's name has dark connotations since she was born during the hours of the fly god, so everyone sees her as a skulking thief. It's even worse now that she and Eponymous Clent have fled the rebellion they may have caused and they find themselves in Toll. By day, only those born at the hours of  the bright and beloved Blessed can walk the streets. If you are unfortunate enough to have a name like Mosca, you have to live in Toll-By-Night and never see the sun again.

Of course Mosca has a problem with this, and she is going to  turn Toll on its head, try to steal its Luck and do whatever she has to to survive. Also known by the title Twilight Robbery, this book is both funny and intriguing.


The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (Children's)

Yes, I'm a million years late to this book series, but this, the first book, was so charming that I had to write about it. It had everything I love: smart kids, shadowy figures bent on ruling the world, people who want to give themselves their own nicknames, narcolepsy, and one of the most obstinate female characters ever. If you love children who shave their heads to disguise themselves, if you love girls who have already run away to the circus, and now want to try something new, if you love infiltrating shadowy organizations, then you will probably love this book.

The Sense of an Ending

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

I read through this book in a morning. It's very easy to do because it's so thin, and I wanted to know what had really happened. Now however, I wonder if I should have slowed down some more. What did I miss? What lies did I not see through?

Anthony is an older gentleman in his 60s. He has a quiet life, with one daughter who doesn't seem to think very much of him (though he may not realize that) and a very good relationship with his ex-wife.  In Part One, he tells the story of his youth, admitting throughout, that this is a very particular story, and that he really only has his memories to base it on. When he's at school, he  begins a friendship with Adrian Fine, a brilliant young man who ends up going to Cambridge. Afterwards, Anthony goes to university at Bristol, has a shaky romance with Veronica, visits her family for a weekend, the relationship ends (never very clear how it ended), Adrian and Veronica get together and Anthony writes Adrian two letters. Later Adrian commits suicide. Remember, this is all told as one narrative from Anthony's perspective.

Then begins Part Two, where Anthony comes back into contact with Veronica after her mother leaves him some money. Then Anthony's story seems to bump up against other people's version of events.

I have to say that I really enjoyed this book. I love unreliable narrators, and Anthony isn't one because he wants to lie about his life, but because his memory is unreliable. I just loved puzzling through this book. However, I'm actually still not sure what happened in the end. So please dear readers, what do you think happened?

Also Known as Rowan Pohi

Also Known as Rowan Pohi by Ralph Fletcher (YA)

Bobby Steele has a few problems. 1) His mom left after his father did something unforgivable. 2) That means that he's stuck trying to take care of what family he still has. 3) He goes to the worst school in the city. 4) He's actually a smart kid, but he lives and goes to school with people who don't appreciate or value  smarts.

Then one day, someone leaves an application  to the elite Whitestone Academy on the table at the IHOP. As a joke, he and his friends make up a kid, Rowan Pohi (or IHOP backwards) and apply. They are surprised when Rowan gets in, but decide to kill him... or they think they do, until Bobby decides to be Rowan.

This is a fairly slight book, but it does deal with violence within families, issues of privilege, and the importance of a good education. I found that a lot of things happened on the surface and there wasn't a huge amount of real resolution. However, I did like Bobby's characterization, and I feel like there could be a few more stories written about him.

New Year, New Goals

So I did actually manage to finish the Cannonball Read, but it was really tight at the end. Because of this, I've decided to not try to complete it again this year, but I will try to keep on posting about the great books I've read. I'll try to post more consistently and stay on top of what I've read a bit more.

CB # 51- 52 Miscellany

Snuff by Terry Pratchett

I was super excited to get a new Pratchett novel out of the library. In this Discworld novel, Sam Vines goes on vacation with his family to their grand estate.  There are some great fish out of water moments, as well as the equality and human rights themes that are often appearing in the Vimes novels. It honestly wasn’t my favourite Discworld novel, but I still enjoyed.

Darwin’s Bastards edited by Zsuzsi Gartner

This is a great collection of Canadian speculative short stories about what the future will be like. The stories are a great mix of funny and sad. One is about a future where being a celebrity is illegal, and a musicaologist goes to secretly interview an eighty year old Feist. Chaos ensues. Another story is a mystery involving the  wealthy who now live on golf courses. There is a love story about a long distance relationship between people who cannot travel legally. The stories are all really inventive.

CB # 44-50 Girls in Trouble

I feel like a huge subset of Young Adult fiction, involves stories about girls in trouble.

 

Every Little Thing in the World Nina de Gramont

Sydney finds out that she’s pregnant but doesn’t know what she’s going to do about it. She’s unable to tell her parents, because every discussion ends in a fight with her mom, and her dad lives like a hippie and doesn’t understand her at all. She has no money for an abortion, her mom won’t let her work at the pool, and her father has decided to send her to a summer camp in the Ontario wilderness.

This was a surrising book. You could never figure out what exactly was going to happen to poor Sydney. However, she find the wilderness helps her figure things out. And I loved that the book deals with the invincible feeling that many teens have. Even Sydney’s pregnancy doesn’t seem to wake her up.

A Pure Swift Cry by  Siobhon Dowd

Set in Ireland in the 1960’s, Shell has to take care of her family after her mother’s death. Her father has given up on life and is drinking his way through all the welfare  money. Shell struggles when she discovers that she’s pregnant. This book deals with religion, death  and the secrets that people keep from each other. The writing style was beautiful in this one.

What Happened to Goodbye? by  Sarah Dessen

I love Sarah Dessen books, but I found that the most recent wasn’t as much fun or as engrossing as her older book. There was not as much friendship of relationship drama, which is the main reason why I read Dessen. Instead, this book focuses mainly on interior drama. McLean keeps on moving to different cities with her father, as he tries to rejuvenate failing restaurants. Each time she moves she reinvents herself with a different name. Now who is she?

Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne Jones

This is the book with a boy in trouble as well. Blink is a street kid who witnesses a kidnapping that seems all right, but it seems all wrong. He ends up calling the kidnapped man’s daughter and trying to help her figure out what went wrong.  He ends up meeting with a drug runner named Caution who is punishing herself for her past mistakes. The story is really engrossing with both the mystery of the present day kidnapping, and the mystery of how both these teens got to where they are now.

The Ghosts of Ashbury High by Jaclyn Moriarty

This is a lighter hearted read, that is a return of the girls from the Year of Secret Assignments. They tell  the story of their final year of high school as a series of essay written in gothic style. There are new students at the school, and they have a deep dark secret! The story sort of flips between darker moments and really hilarious moments. I didn't enjoy it as much as some of Moriarty's other books, but it was still a fun read.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A. S. King

Vera deals with the death of her ex-friend Charlie in the worst way possible, with drinking and imagining him everywhere. I thought that this novel is fairly engrossing, but I can’t really bring up much more about it.

CB # 41-43 Uglies, Pretties, and Specials

Uglies
Pretties

Specials   All by Scott Westerfield (YA)

This trilogy (plus the extra book which is set in the same world, Extras, which I never got around to reading) is set in the far future. Human civilization as we know it has been destroyed by a virus that caused all the petrol to explode. Now humanity has rebuilt itself into a beautiful species.  In the first book, Uglies, Tally Youngblood is excited about her upcoming 16th birthday. Finally she’ll become “pretty,” a surgical process that will physically transform her so that she is a perfect example of the human beauty ideal - giant eyes, perfectly smooth skin, amazing hair etc. Everyone has the surgery at age 16. However, a week before her birthday, Tally’s friend, Shay tells her that she doesn’t want to get the surgery. Instead she is going to run away to the Smoke, to meet her friend David. When Tally doesn’t want to leave with her, Shay gives her instructions on how to find the Smoke. Unfortunately, Uglies aren’t supposed to leave. Instead, Special Circumstances, who police the city, force Tally to go and find out where the Smoke is, and set off a receiver so Special Circumstances can find and destroy the Smoke.

Obviously, Tally's world can't be utopian (why can't we have a utopia?), so there need to be dark secrets which Tally will discover as things go along. Also, it's a trilogy, so more and more secrets will be revealed as you go through the books.  I found the first book to be the strongest and the most interesting, but as a series it couldn't keep my interest. I took forever to read Specials and I found the plot fairly repetitive. However, I will say that I couldn't completely abandon the books. The end of each one hooks you into reading the next, even if it takes you forever to get through them. 

On the plus side, I thought that the friendship between Shay and Tally changed and was complicated in a very real way, and I appreciated it. I also think that as soft science fiction, it can be a great introduction to a reluctant reader to a really fun genre. The writing style is easy to read and Tally has really normal teenage concerns throughout.

CB # 38 - 40 Magicians and their problems

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Magician King by Lev Grossman
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Together these three novels were my top reads of the year. They were filled with magic and wonder, but there was a depth to them that I really needed. I have always loved children's and young adult fantasy, but I was often uninterested in reading adult fantasy. I think it's because I assumed that if I was going to read an "adult" novel, then it had better be an important one. I think I'm over that assumption now.

The Night Circus is actually the most light-hearted of these books.  As children, Celia and Marco were  pledged without their consent into a competition to prove what method of teaching magic works best. The competition will take place in the Cirque des Reves, with Marco working on the circus from a distance, while Celia performs her magic openly by pretending to be a regular magician. Unfortunately, neither of the magicians are prepared for the fact that they might fall for their competitor, nor are they ready for the fact that they are not the only people that they must worry about; they need to think of everyone involved in the circus. Morgenstern does not attempt to explain the magic they perform, which adds another element of mystery to the story, and the circus (a black and white marvel) seems so amazing that I wish I could go. I did think that a editor might have tightened a few sections, but otherwise I adored it.

The Magicians is really interesting because it draws on the children's fantasy tradition.  In his senior year of high school, Quentin is still obsessed with children's books about Fillory. Fillory resembles Narnia with its talking animals, need for humans to save it from trouble, and the god figure(s) who exist in this magical world in animal form (also the fact that the children who visit get unceremoniously kicked out, often for good). Quentin's obsession with Fillory, and with the need to experience real magic is making him rather antisocial, until one day he suddenly finds himself walking through a door, and arriving on the lawn of Brakehills, a real school for magicians. Magic is apparently real, and although Brakehills relies a lot on Harry Potter and Hogwarts for its essence, there is something unusual about this school, and this book. Magic apparently involves a huge amount of hard work and sacrifice, and that amount of effort makes life in a magical world almost banal. If you have to really, really study, and there isn't a quest every year, like in Harry Potter, then maybe magic isn't anymore wonderful than everything else in life. There's a dark undertow in this book, as Quentin finds out that even a magician has to strive to make his life have meaning. There are nihilist moments as Quentin and his friends leave the school and find out how little they need to do. Of course, there are adventures, and there's even a trip to Fillory, but the world is never as simple as you can hope it is.

I loved The Magicians so much, that I actually bought the sequel in hard cover. I'm still a student, so this means something. I've since lent these books around to anyone who'll borrow them. The Magican King begins a bit after where The Magicians ended off, so I'll talk about it after the jump, for anyone who doesn't want any SPOILERS at all.

CB # 33-37 Percy Jackson and the Olympians

The Lightning Thief

The Sea of Monsters

The Titan’s Curse

The Battle of the Labyrinth

The Last Olympian                     All by Rick Riordan

                To be short and sweet, this is a really fun children’s fantasy series, focusing on what would happen if the Ancient Greek gods were around in present day America. Percy Jackson has always been getting into trouble, and he can never stay in the same school for more than a year, but he learns when he’s 11 that there’s a reason for this. He’s actually a demigod, a son of Poseidon. Monsters are drawn to demigods and wish to destroy them, and Percy finds a relative safe haven at Camp Half-Blood, where all the campers are demi-gods. In the first book, Percy has to clear his name and prevent war between the gods, when Zeus’ Lightning bolt goes missing. There is also an overall series plot, coming from a prophecy that one of the children of Hades, Zeus or Poseidon will making a choice when he or she turns 16 that could lead to the destruction of Mount Olympus, and therefore the Western world.

                I liked that Percy, although the star of the series, is not the best at everything. He always needs to rely on his friends, including the brilliant Annabeth, daughter of Athena, and Grover, a nature loving satyr. I loved that there are lots of smart and strong girls and women in the series, and Percy regularly had to rely on their support to survive. I loved that even though I knew most of the myths that the plots are based on, Riordan would surprise me by changing the details to better fit a modern retelling. I loved that all of the demigods were dealing with disabilities (dyslexia and ADHD), but that the ADHD improved their fighting skills, and the dyslexia is caused by their inborn gift to read Ancient Greek. I thought it was a nice touch, for kids to see heroes with those issues.

                I did feel like the stories did have a slight formula (Percy being kicked out of school after fighting a monster, Camp Half-Blood is in danger, there’s a prophecy from the Oracle, etc.) but I still enjoyed it. My other complaint is that SPOILER AFTER THE JUMP