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.

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.

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# 28-29: Wintersmith and I Shall Wear Midnight

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett               

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett  (YA)

                These are the two most recent Tiffany Aching books. I’ve reviewed the first two earlier.  I found these books fairly interesting because Pratchett had said that these novels are aimed at younger readers who might also enjoy the fantasy and humour of Discworld. The first two books had really felt aimed at children, while these two, especially I Shall Wear Midnight, feel like they’re aimed at young adults.

                 In Wintersmith, Tiffany is staying with the ancient Miss Treason to learn more witchcraft. She’s nearly 13 and although she misses her home, she knows that she’ll never be truly respected as a witch unless she goes away. Everyone’s seen her as a child, so she needs to leave so that they’ll believe that she’s changed. She’s still being watched over by the Feegles, and she has a pen pal in Roland, the Baron’s son. One night, Miss Treason takes her to a Dark Morris dance which leads to the coming of winter. Even though Miss Treason warns Tiffany that she can only watch the dance, Tiffany ends up dancing in it. This means that she actually danced with the Wintersmith, and replaced Summer in the dance. Now the Wintersmith is intrigued by her, and wants to be with her … forever! Also,  Summer might never come again, since Tiffany’s replaced her. This book is all about personal responsibility and realizing that actions have consequences. Once Tiffany realizes that she’s made a major mistake, she has to do more than just apologize. She has to fix things.

                I Shall Wear Midnight is even darker in tone. Tiffany is nearly 16 and she has to deal with the consequences of what she has done with the Wintersmith. The magic she used then has awoken and called to her a monstrous being whose power is to make witches be hated and feared. This will lead to witches (or women who seem like witches) to be killed by the community that they cared for.  This book is much darker in tone than the first three, at least in the unmagical happenings. In the first chapter, Tiffany has to take care of a 13 year old girl whose father beat her so hard that she miscarried. As well, everyone is worried for Tiffany’s wellbeing because (scroll over for spoilers)  Roland is getting married to someone else! . Honestly, I think it’s for the best, but it’s a bit of a surprise after their friendship in the other 3 novels. Don't let the darker tone turn you off though. In spite of this its still full of humour  and it's exciting to read. And the young girl that Tiffany cares for does manage to escape her father and find a safe place to be.

                I really enjoyed both novels. I love that magic isn’t the answer to everything. I love that being a witch mainly involves doing things that other people don’t want to do or don’t think about like making sure a wizened old lady gets her bath or visiting lonely people. I really like that Tiffany always has to deal with the consequences of her actions, and that she is always capable even if she is scared. In my mind, she’s a pretty good role model.

CB # 15 For the Win

For the Win by Cory Doctorow  (YA)

This young adult novel follows teenagers all over the world as they play video games and try to mine gold and create a union for all the people who work within the system of the games. I thought the concept was really interesting, as it follows people in countries like China and India who play games for money. Their jobs is to farm gold, get the super awesome weapons to sell, or help new or lonely players to get further along in terms of experience. However, the gaming companies don’t want this to happen, so they hire other players in these countries and in North America to find these people in the game and kick them out. Since all of this is happening online in games that resemble World of Warcraft, outsiders don’t realize how both groups of players are being exploited. A group in Indonesia reaches out to players all over the world in an attempt to create a union for those who work within the online world. Unfortunately, a wild-cat strike of players in China means that workers are likely to experience the most vile strikebreaking techniques.

I know what Doctorow was trying to do with this novel, in terms of raising awareness in young adults about worker’s conditions around the world, as well as the way technology is changing the way people can connect. I guess I just wasn’t the perfect audience for this one. I found that there were too many characters and not enough time spent on them, so it was hard to feel strongly about any of them. I know that I don’t know too much about gaming, but I felt that there was too much explanatory description of how the games worked, even for me. However, I did learn the term “wild-cat strike”, as well as a better understanding of economics, so this book was a draw.

CB# 13: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Leviathan     (YA)

                I unabashedly love John Green. I thought Paper Towns was amazing. I also love David Leviathan, at least I love what he writes with Rachel Cohn (Boy Meets Boy is never available at the library). And they work really well together.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is about two boys named Will Grayson and the coincidences that bring them together, especially their relationship with the amazing Tiny. Tiny is a gigantic football player with an amazing baritone voice and the seeming ability to fall in love with any boy he meets. One Will, has been Tiny’s friend since elementary school, and is too afraid of life to take real risks and admit how he feels about Jane, about life, about his friendship with Tiny. The other Will doesn’t consider anyone he hangs out with his friend, and is in love with Isaac, someone he only knows online. Misunderstandings and cruelty bring the two Will Graysons together on a lonely night in Chicago, and both their lives start to change for the better.  

This novel is concerned with love (between friends, and romantically) and all the consequences of admitting what you feel. It is also about being different from the “norm” in any number of ways, including coming out as gay, but also being depressed, not having enough money, or being afraid of having visible emotions as a straight boy. My favourite part of the novel was the fact that Tiny decided to write a musical about his life called Tiny Dancer. It is epic to say the least. My least favourite element is that the second Will Grayson does not like to use capital letters and he writes about half of the novel from his perspective. In my heart, only e.e. cummings gets away with that.

CB # 12 The Cardturner

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar           (YA)

                I have a serious soft spot in my heart for Louis Sachar, mainly because of Holes and There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. I just love his style and his sense of humour. He can always make me laugh, and his books for teens, including this one, wrench at my heart. I was so excited when I found this at the library, and for once, I was right to cheer. Sachar has managed to write a funny, sweet novel about bridge. That’s right, the card game, and he somehow convinced me that I really want to learn how to play.

                Seventeen year old Alton is always being reminded that his great-uncle Lester (or Trapp, as his real friends call him) is his favourite uncle. Not because he’s actually his favourite, but because Trapp is extremely rich and will hopefully leave all his money to Alton’s family. This money is pretty much expected, because his parents have overextended themselves pre-emptively in anticipation of the riches that they’ll receive. However, Trapp isn’t dead yet and he needs an assistant. Trapp has gone blind because of his diabetes, but he still wants to play bridge. His last cardturner, Toni, questioned him at one point, so she has started to actually start playing bridge as Trapp's occasional partner. Instead, Alton will step in because he doesn’t know anything about the game. Basically, with each new hand of cards, Alton takes Trapp aside and tells him what he has, and then plays the cards as Trapp tells him during the game. Trapp assumes that Alton will never be interested in the game, but he’s very wrong. The more Alton watches, the more he wants to learn.

                As Alton learns more and starts to practice, the reader can learn more (if he or she really wants to). Whenever there’s a section explaining how the game works, there’s a little whale so that if the reader wants to skip to the quick summary box, he or she can. I personally found it fascinating, but that’s just me, and I can understand why other people wouldn’t want to learn about bridge. Sachar seems to know how teens think, and gives those with no interest in bridge a way out without them giving up on the book.

                Of course, this wouldn’t be great YA with just an explanation of bridge. In fact, that would probably get Sachar tons of angry letters from readers who were expecting to read a novel. No, Alton learns the dark secrets of Trapp’s past, makes a friend (or more) out of Toni, and tries to balance the complications that occur when your best friend is dating your ex-girlfriend. He also starts to realise how strange his parents really are for expecting Trapp's money.  I liked how bridge really does seem to be a metaphor for life, it’s what you do with the hand you’re dealt that counts.

Reading at the right time or Why YA?

                Let’s be honest. There is both a wrong time and a right time to read something, and it can be impossible to know the difference until you start reading. When I was 11, I tried to read 1984. It didn’t work. I found it boring and dry and I only got 50 pages in. I shocked a teacher by saying it was the most boring book ever. I was eventually able to read it though, when I was 15, but only after reading Animal Farm and a whole bunch of other things. I was amazed to find the book so different. It was intense and dark and terrifying, a beautiful nightmare.

                I’m not just talking about reading things before you’re ready, though it is the more likely thing to happen. There are tons of works that are only able to speak to you because of where you were at that time, and they are still able to speak to you as a reminder of the past. It’s hard to imagine people who can’t remember the emotions of adolescence finding anything to enjoy in Catcher in the Rye. Sure Holden’s just as phony as the people he hates, but I felt sorry for him because he doesn’t recognize it yet and because I could recognize myself in him.

                 There are books you need to read in certain ways, at certain times, so that they can touch your heart, save your life, change your mind or move you forward so that you can read that next thing that will mean the world to you. There were books I read, like The Chocolate War and Huckleberry Finn, that I read because other people didn’t want me to. I had found the ALA list of most challenged books and decided to read as many of these as I could. Part of the power of these books came from the fact that someone out there thought that I shouldn’t read them.

                Where does YA fit in to this? Everywhere.

                 Going back to 1984, I needed certain books to move me forward to the point where I could admire it. I needed to read other dystopias, as well as other completely different books. I also needed other books that referenced it to pique my interest once again. A lot of YA makes allusions to other “greater” works, or raised my consciousness about issues that had never crossed my mind before. It made me want to read further, to find out more. YA can be a stepping stone to other works, but it can also be a good unto itself.

                And then there’s The Chocolate War. Right now I’m working on a presentation on a challenged book, and I found myself returning to this one. When I first read it, I was a pretty typical teen. I was a mystery to myself.  I didn’t understand what I was feeling or why I was acting the way I was, and no one else seemed to understand me either.  It didn’t help that I’ve never liked to talk about my problems and there was some bullying going on. I’ve mentioned this before, but this book meant a lot to me back then; however, I don’t ever want to read it again.  In the novel, bad things happened to good people and evil triumphed… or did it? Maybe life wasn’t that simple. Maybe there were other options. It was comforting to hear about the dark things, things that sounded like part of my life and not have it banished from the story.

                I was sad when Robert Cormier died and when Monica Hughes died and when Madeline L’Engle died. I'll be sad when other authors die too. These people mattered to me because they helped give me an emotional vocabulary. Maybe not new words, but new stories, new phrases that helped me recognize myself and others. Sometimes you need to be shown that what you feel is real, that you are not alone in feeling this way, that other people have it worse, and that you should help them if you can. Maybe today sucks, and maybe tomorrow will too, but that doesn’t mean that something better won’t show up someday and you have a role to play in that. Yes, adolescence is a time for melodrama (and oh what melodrama!), but that doesn’t mean that the feelings aren’t real. And sometimes a book can help you figure it out.

CB#6 Flipped

 Flipped by  Wendelin Van Draanen         (YA)

                Getting mail is one of the loveliest things. It’s so much more exciting than an email and mail is even better when it’s a friend sending you a book.  Thanks Britt, for making my day when you mailed me an awesome novel.

                 Van Draanen has been on my radar for a while because I really like her Sammy Keyes mysteries. Keyes is a tomboy in middle school who secretly lives with her grandmother because her gran isn’t supposed to have anyone living with her. She sarcastic, loves softball and solving mysteries. Keyes is a really awesome character who does what she believes in and doesn’t go along with the flow. Juli Baker is the same. She raises chickens, she loves soccer and she’ll stay up in the old sycamore tree to try to save it from being cut down.

                The narration of Flipped switches between the two main characters: Julianna Baker and  Bryce Loski. In the second grade, Juli has a crush on Bryce from the first time she meets him. He’s just so cute, and she’s been waiting for a friend her own age for a while. Meanwhile, Bryce is just terrified of her and doesn’t like that she’s messy and so eager to be friends. The plot quickly zips along to the eighth grade, noting that all the while Juli’s had a crush on Bryce, while Bryce tries to completely avoid her.

                However, things are starting to change. Juli is slowly becoming aware that Bryce isn’t who she sees him as, and Bryce is starting to wonder if he’s been worried about the right things all along. I have a major saw that I like to harp on, which is that we often fundamentally misunderstand people so that we can continue to see the world as we like. There’s a way that we like to see things, and so when something or someone doesn’t fit our original view, we just misunderstand it so that our viewpoint continues to work, to our personal detriment. Juli sees Bryce as a good person who’s just really shy, mainly because he’s so good looking. Bryce sees Juli as annoying but is too scared to tell her that’s she’s coming on too strong. As well, he is completely focused on appearances, thinking that her house is a mess, and he worries too much about what other people think. Of course, the way they feel is going to flip, and maybe Bryce can change.

                In the Q & A in the back, Van Draanen  talks about being a teacher and noticing how her students always had crushes on such unworthy people. However, those people were cute or pretty, and as a teacher she couldn’t really say anything. I think Flipped really does try to show that appearances aren’t everything. As well, it honestly portrays the ridiculous moments of boy craziness that can happen to anyone, even smart, sensible girls. I remember middle school, and those stupid stomach flips and moments of going crazy over someone who wasn’t that special at all. My only thing to criticize is that I felt like Juli’s crush started too early for it to last for so long. Five years is a long time, especially if you aren’t really talking to him.

CB #5 Mockingjay

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins    (YA)

                Possible spoilers to every book in the trilogy (I’m sorry)

I thought that this was the perfect conclusion to the trilogy. In fact, I feel like it’s the only right way for things to end.   The Hunger Games can be seen as about the way that suffering can be unreal entertainment when it’s not happening to you. The Capitol’s citizens don’t seem to realize that real children are dying as they watch it on the big screen. Innocents are forcibly destroying each other for their own survival, and the Capitol places bets. In Mockingjay, the fight comes to the Capitol and its children, but it doesn’t make everything better for those in the Districts. Instead Mockingjay is about the way that violence and power struggles can only be damaging. At least, that was how I saw it.

I’m not really going to comment on the narrative itself, but instead on the possible issues that people may have with it. I never saw this trilogy as being about a great love story. I felt that Katniss has too much to think about and do to have any time for romance. Sure there are two men for her to fall for, but I don’t think that Katniss understood either of them enough to really fall in love, until perhaps the very end. Especially in the first book, you saw how she went through the motions to keep both herself and Peeta alive.  For me, this trilogy is about the other kinds of love that exist: love for family members that is so strong that you’ll give up your life and your chances of happiness for them,  a love for truth that means you’ll sacrifice your life so that the “better” leader will survive the Games, and a love for friends. I can’t even see a Team Gale or a Team Peeta in this story, though apparently others have seen it this way. Katniss needs to survive long enough for her to have a life, before she can even think about love.

As well, in this novel we finally see the consequences of all of the fighting. None of the victors of the Games are fully themselves anymore. All the fighting means that they’ve lost any sense of stability they may have had before. I found this, though dark and troubling, very realistic. I honestly wouldn’t expect any of them to have stayed the same. I read another review just after finishing the books that said that Mockingjay was too dark in comparison to The Hunger Games. I have to disagree. Mockingjay is about consequences catching up to people. It’s about the complications of reality and politics. As well, The Hunger Games was about children killing each other, and that's never a cheerful subject.

Anyway, I really loved the trilogy and I would recommend it to anyone who loves dystopias or novels about political power struggles. If you liked the political aspects I would suggest that Megan Whalen Turner’s novels about Attolia, starting with The Thief. They’re set in a fictional kingdom in the past, but they’re as gritty and political as The Hunger Games.

CB #4 Catching Fire

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins  (YA)

                Catching Fire is definitely the second book in a trilogy. It has the non-beginning and non-ending that sometimes happens with trilogies (think Pirates of the Caribbean). It’s not necessarily the fault of the trilogy format, especially since The Subtle Knife is my favourite of the His Dark Materials trilogy and Back to the Future II is just plain awesome. However, it makes me wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to have the stories of Catching Fire and Mockingjay put in one book. NB: If you haven’t read Hunger Games yet, you might want to stop reading.

You're still with me? Katniss and Peeta survived the game, but now the Capitol is basically out to destroy Katniss and her family’s life. They can’t do this overtly, because their entire audience loved the star-crossed lovers who could not live without each other story that Katniss used to save both their lives. However, Captiol saw her actions as rebellion and as the spark that may convince the Districts to rebel against the Capitol. Now Katniss must use all her skill to  convince the Capitol that she really does love Peeta.

Now I did have a few issues with this book so if you haven’t read it, you won’t want to read further.

                I HATED the idea of the Quarter Quell using previous victors. I know it was just a way to get back at the Katniss. This time there would be no way to save Peeta and herself, so she’s going to want to sacrifice herself to save the better person. I was mainly bothered by the way it brought the Hunger Games back into the novel. I know it adds excitement and tension to the story, but it felt cheap. It felt like a repeat of the first novel. What did surprise me was how many of the previous victors weren’t completely mentally destroyed by their experiences in the ring. Haymitch, Katniss' mentor, is an alcoholic, and there are a few drug addicts, but otherwise the victors are surprisingly stable. One roommate noted that this was probably because those who survived the ring were mentally strong and had an incredible will to live, and would never do anything that would harm their ability to survive. Once again, I would be a complete mess if I survived anything like that. All I'd do is cry.

               There were still a few things that I liked about this book though. I liked that Peeta pretended that Katniss was pregnant with their child. It’s one way to make the audience in the Capitol remember that those who fight are people too. I also liked that Katniss and Peeta basically ignored each other for a while after the Games. Of course they were forced to go around the Districts on tour together, but for a while they could pretend to be differnent people.

CB #3 The Hunger Games

 The Hunger Games  by Suzanne Collins   YA

                Here’s the thing about living with a bunch of library students. When one person’s read something that she loves… well she really want to talk about it. So once two of my roommates had read The Hunger Games trilogy, I simply had to or else I would be left out of the conversation. It was definitely worth it, and highly engrossing. I read the entire trilogy in a week.

                The first novel,The Hunger Games, was described to me as “Survivor meets 1984”. I’d describe it as Battle Royale but they didn’t go to high school together. In the distant future, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event in which two children (12-18) are taken from each of the twelve districts of what remains of North America and forced to kill each other. The victor is the only survivor and he or she brings honor (and more food) to their district. In reality, the games are a way for the Capitol to demonstrate its power over the other states. Every year they kill some of the district’s children, and therefore some of the district’s hope for the future.

                Katniss is the narrator and she’s prickly. Or at least she likes to think so. I know that she’s supposed to be hardened, but in my mind she’s really sweet. When her sister’s name is drawn for the Games, Katniss immediately takes her place. She doesn’t even think. So for me, everything she does is coloured by that act, especially when she acts tough. Unfortunately, the other person from District 12 is Peeta, whose act of kindness towards Katniss helped her turn her life around and care for her family after her father’s death. It’s hard to know that you may have to kill the person who helped you save your life.

                Sometimes Katniss is a little bit too media savvy as she plays the Games. She knows that there are always cameras so she tries to do things to win over the audience. She knows that they can sponsor her and send her food, water, medicine and weapons. Sometimes her savvy comes across as a bit much. However, other than that she comes across as a real person. I’ll talk about her relationship with love in the review for Mockingjay, because I think it’s an overall series issue for sure.

                Overall, I loved this book and as soon as I finished it, I had to read the other two. I would like to mention that the participants in the Hunger Games are far more brave than I would be. The second I was able to, I’d run as far away as I could and then cry in a curled up ball until someone found me and killed me. Instead, Katniss is able to pick up some helpful items, make some allies and SPOILER (but it’s a trilogy so you knew this) survive.

CB#2 Pretty Monsters

Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link           (YA) 

Sometimes short stories don’t have proper endings, and they’re all about capturing a moment or a feeling. You finish the story and you don’t feel completely satisfied, because the story isn’t about satisfaction or catharsis and you didn’t even realize it. It’s about unnerving you and capturing a feeling that you don’t even have words for. It’s about leaving you unsure about what you thought you knew. That’s how these stories work.

 The mishmash of horror and fantasy in the ten stories reminded me of Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors. The first story is about a guy who, like Dante Gabriel Rossetti, buries his poetry with his girlfriend, later regrets it and comes back to dig it back up. Unfortunately, he dug up the wrong grave and a tattooed, undead girl comes after him. Also, his poetry really wasn’t worth it. Another story is about a handbag that contains a village. Of course it’s a faery handbag, so if you go in it for a day, years will have passed by the times you leave. There are stories about wizards who never seem to do anything, about ghosts who live on blood offerings, about aliens that appeared to a surfer and about the television shows that people watch inside of fiction.

I had two favourite stories. The title one, “Pretty Monsters”, and  “Magic for Beginners”. Pretty Monsters is about teen girls who are in that particular time frame when they actually are monsters. They’re needlessly cruel and willfully misunderstand things.  Also, they like to read romance stories about werewolves, but unfortunately werewolves aren’t really built for love, they’re all about eating. Also, people are never really ready for werewolves in real life. Magic for Beginners is about  a boy and the intense feelings, romantic and otherwise, that he has for his small group of friends. It’s also about his favourite tv show, which I have to say, I would love to watch. It’s called The Library and it’s about a crazy, magical library where there are pirates and the actors keep on switching roles and it never plays at the same time, or on the same channel. Honestly, I hope I end up working at an insane library like that. I would definitely chase down those pirate ruffians.

CB#1 Freak Magnet

Freak Magnet by Andrew Auseon              (YA)

                I was surprised by how much I loved this book. I had picked it up at the library with a ton of other books that were sadly duds, but this one was pretty amazing. It’s the story of a motormouth astronomy nerd named Charlie, who sees a beautiful girl named Gloria and decides that he has to tell her that she’s beautiful. She’s weirded out by this and adds his name to her Freak Folio, the work of poetry and drawings she does surrounding all the strange people who approach her. I know that it seems like a pretty crappy book with only that description.

                But that’s only how they meet. That’s only the first impression you get. As the book goes on I found out a lot more about Charlie and Gloria and I grew to really love them. Charlie loves astronomy because it’s a way to escape the more difficult parts of his life. His mom has Huntington’s and is deteriorating both mentally and physically. Sometimes she just whispers random words and sometimes she swears  at him and his father, calling them pieces of shit as they try to take care of her. He lives with his head in the clouds most of the time because it’s the only way he can live. Otherwise, it’s all too much. Gloria has her own problems too. Her brother Faris was killed while serving in Afganistan and it seems like all her mother wants to do is have elaborate fundraisers for the Arab American Advocacy Council. Gloria is stuck in one place by her own grief and can’t see anything outside of it. She can’t understand that her mother is mourning in her own way and that she is consistently making things harder for her mother by pushing her away. Charlie and Gloria keep on running into each other and slowly become friends and then more.

                This was another book that I found was about the way that relationships (romantic, familial and with friends) can save your life. Sometimes your life isn’t all that great and there’s nothing that you can really do about some of the worst things. However, people can save you by distracting you, accepting you and your problems, and simply being with you. The focus in Freak Magnet wasn’t just on the (possible) young love of Charlie and Gloria, but also on the way that Charlie’s dad loves and cares for his wife, the way that Charlie’s friend Edison tries to keep Charlie from getting caught up in too much, the way that Gloria’s sister and mother are still there for each other, even though they are diametrically different.

               

Short Cuts

Not much to say about these books:
            A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett

 In this Discworld book for children starring the young witch Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men (basically the toughest fairies of all time), Tiffany moves away from her home to study with another witch, but doesn’t realize that she is being chased by an ancient evil. Granny Weatherwax makes an appearance. Like everything Pratchett writes, it’s really funny, but it’s not his best and there are actual chapter divisions and fewer ridiculous footnotes. I love his footnotes.

Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted       (YA)

This novel is a modern retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story, with the Beast being Lucas, who accidently blew off his hands in a chemical explosion and is starting over at a new high school. Aurora is the Beauty, who has moved after her mother’s death. It’s short and sweet, but I feel like the author could have gone an awful lot further. The story isn’t particularly fable-like, with the first person point of view switching between the two main characters, so I feel like there could have been more realism around Lucas’ disability. Yes, Lucas does talk about wishing he could touch Aurora, and his shame around the explosion, but I would have liked some more information about how he used his hooks to do everyday things. Sometimes, I honestly didn’t understand how he was doing certain things. As well, Aurora could have had more personality. She’s beautiful and she’s kind, but because she’s new she’s going to go around with the popular crowd. I believe that, but I can’t believe that she doesn’t have more defining features.

                Thank you, Jeeves by P.G Woodhouse

                I usually love P.G. Woodhouse. I love the wacky hijinks, I love the silly names and I love how incredibly smart and sane Jeeves is, especially since he’s the personal valet to the (though often engaged) permanent bachelor Bertie Wooster. Most of this novel gives me exactly that, but unfortunately the entire last half of this plot revolves around black face. Bertie and other characters end up with boot polish on their faces, while they are masquerading as black musicians and can’t take it off for various comic reasons.  It’s a novel from the 1930’s, so it’s not entirely surprising but it did really ruin my enjoyment of the novel. Bertie is mistaken for the devil a few times with his face covered in boot polish, and although I hope it's because boot polish simply looks unnatural on skin, I don't think that was where Woodhouse was going with it.

Going Bovine

Going Bovine by Libba Bray  (YA)

                I haven’t really been reading much because of exams, but this book  got me through the drab, desperate days of December.

Cameron is a slacker in every sense of the term. He doesn’t try hard. He doesn’t really have friends, and he can’t pay enough real attention to the people in his life to really get to know them and try to understand them. All he really does is smoke pot and make fun of the music of the Grande Tremeldo, who sings Portuguese love songs in a ridiculously high falsetto. His mom doesn’t really do anything, his sister is too popular to talk to him, and his physicist father may be having an affair with his research assistant. Cameron isn’t really happy with the life he has, but he’s too lazy and apathetic to try to turn things around. Then he gets diagnosed with Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, also known as Mad Cow.

He learns is that his brain is basically turning to Swiss Cheese and he is definitely going to die, very, very soon. Then, like all human beings, he gets mad. He’s only sixteen, and he hasn’t really done anything , which is partially because he is young, but also partially because of his own unwillingness to really live. Unfortunately, he’s now stuck in the hospital, hooked up to IV fluids. That’s when he meets Dulcie, a pink-haired Angel who tells him that only he can save the world. The only way to do it is to grab his hospital roommate Gonzo, a hypochondriac little person with a ridiculously overprotective mother, and go on the run to find Dr X, the only person who can stop the end of the world, and might even be able to save Cameron’s life. Cameron grabs Gonzo and goes on a road trip from New Orleans to Disney World, even picking up the Nordic god Balder, transfigured into a garden gnome, on the way.

This book is very surreal and definitely is inspired by Don Quixote, as it’s the book that Cameron was reading in class. Unfortunately, I never got very far in Quixote (but if someone could recommend a good translation I could try ) so I may be missing countless references. I think the key point though is that it’s only as he’s dying that Cameron tries to live. And boy does he live. He finds a  community where everyone has to be happy and equal in every single way, and he helps bring it down by exposing it as the totalitarian regime that it is. He’s a wanted fugitive, he falls in love, he plays the drums on stage in New Orleans. He fights the fire giants that he sees everywhere, and he faces the Wizard of Reckoning. Key to it all, is that everything might just be in his head. All of his adventures might be the last of his brain cells dying off, transforming his memories into some strange story that he’s telling himself. The question is: does it even matter as long as he’s having an actual life?

                I definitely cried, which I did not expect. There’s just something about  people taking chances and being good to each other that makes me sob. That’s just the way I work. I didn’t expect to like it so much, but I just love the surreal and the strange elements of the story. It was wild and crazy but it all made sense.  Cameron grew on me, as he slowly realized what he had been missing out on, and that life is about taking risks and being with people. And it’s such a bittersweet thing to learn, as you’re going to die.

There's a darkness inside of you

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta     (YA)

                Francesca is having a tough time. Since her all-girls school ends in year 10, she has to start all over at a new school. However, her mother doesn’t want her to start just anywhere. She is one of the pilot project of 30 female students to attend a traditionally all-boys school, St Sebastian’s. All her friends from before have gone off to another school, while she is stuck with the outcasts from St Stella’s. As well, none of the boys like having the  girls at the school, and the school itself has been fairly unwelcoming by choosing to put on Stalag 17 and have no sports teams that the girls can join. On top of all this, Francesca’s mother, usually the loudest one in a room, won’t get out of bed.

                 Just to make things clear, depression doesn’t just affect the individual, although that’s the most noticeable thing. When someone you love is depressed, it can be absolutely devastating.  It sometimes feels like that person has disappeared, and you have no idea if they’ll ever return.  It’s painful for family and friends, and they can feel lost and unsure of how to help or what to do.

Francesca is used to having an incredibly loud and bubbly mom who she fights with constantly, but who is always there in the end.  In fact, her mom was one of her constants, always telling Francesca that she is hiding part of herself from her friends and cheering her on when she was wild and out there.  Now Francesca has to fight for her mom, who barely seems interested in her own life. She has to try to keep her family together, take care of her brother and try not to blame her father for her mother’s illness. On top of that, she’s expected to lobby for the girls at school, get good grades and not cause too much fuss in the classroom.

I love the fact that Francesca is so wrong about her own life. The girls who she thinks are her friends never liked the real her, they only liked her once they’d taken her down a few notches. Instead, at St Sebastian’s, she becomes close friends with girls she never would have talked to before: wild Siobhon, radical feminist Tara, and nerdy accordion player Justine. She also finds that though the boys are sometimes gross, they also have hidden depths  and can be wonderful friends.  It turns out that not everything about a person can be seen at first glance. Fairly obvious, but it’s nice to be reminded.

There’s also the standard love plot, but I did like how it involved a lot of mistakes and horrific embarrassments. Finding out that the boy you kissed has a girlfriend is pretty humiliating. I didn’t really care too much about the love story, but I thought it was necessary for Francesca. I find myself at the point at which I’m starting to believe that love (at least in books) is just a way to help people to distract themselves from the harder times in their lives, which is a worthy goal in itself.

Finally, I loved the fact that depression did not suddenly disappear in time for the climax, or even in time for the end of the book. Life isn’t that easy, though it can and usually does get better. There will be setbacks and delays, and people will need you to be there for them. It's just the way things are, but it's nice to know that in advance.

Does anyone deserve to be treated so badly?

The Treasure Map of Boys  by E. Lockhart  YA

I was so impressed by The Disreputable History that I decided that I had to read something else by Lockhart. Unfortunately, the Education Library doesn’t have a huge range of books. This is the third in the series of Ruby Oliver books, and while I haven’t read the other two, there is enough background material to help me understand what is going on. In the past, Ruby’s boyfriend, Jackson, left her for her best friend, Kim.  Understandably, Ruby was pretty heartbroken about this and when Jackson kissed her while Kim was away, she went with it. Kim was disgusted with Ruby when she found out, and turned all her friends against her. Without any friends, Ruby starts to suffer from panic attacks and while in therapy she writes down the names of all they boys she’s had crushes on. Her ex-friends find the list, photocopy it, and leave it all over her school. Everyone at school assumes that this a list of boys Ruby has slept with, and that she’s a slut, resulting in her getting tormented in various ways. The Treasure Map starts after all this has occurred.

 Ruby has managed to make two new friends, Meghan and Nora, and there is a boy who thinks she’s lovely, Noah. However, Nora is completely head over heels about Noah, and since she’s one of Ruby’s only friends, Ruby feels that she can’t date Noah. As well, Jackson has finally broken up with Kim and he wants to be friends (or more) again. In case this isn’t too much, Ruby has been fired from her job at the petting zoo because she tells off a drunk man who puts his child in danger around the animals. Ruby’s life is just a mess and she has very few good things in it.

What I really liked about this book is the way it deals with slut shaming. It’s a real thing that happens to tons of girls and there is nothing similar that happens to boys. Ruby hasn’t done anything other than kiss someone else’s boyfriend, but that’s enough for everyone to hate her and assume the worst of her. Obviously, it wasn’t a good thing to have done, but it was a mistake and she feels horrible for having done it. People do mess up, but girls and women have to deal with the consequences for so much longer than boys and men do. I could really feel Ruby’s loneliness as she hears her ex-friends in class. She’s just managed to rebuild some sort of life out of what has happened and now there’s the chance that it’s going to be destroyed all over again because of the boys in her life.

One other thing I loved about Ruby is that although she’s a feminist, she admits to being boy crazy. She really likes being in a relationship and this makes it harder for her to ignore the sparks between her and Noah. I just find it interesting to read about a character who admits that her values don’t fall exactly in line with her desires and needs. It’s pretty realistic and I feel that teens sometimes need reminders that life isn’t all that cut and dried, especially because expectations that things must be just so can lead to bullying, as seen in the novel.

I didn’t like this one as much as The Disreputable History, possibly because I didn’t read the first two books, but I think it really has a message that some people really need to hear. There are girls experiencing slut shaming and there are tons of people letting this happen.