Category: Fiction

It wouldn’t be Banned Books Week without a review of a GLBT book, since so many would-be censors take umbrage with the fact that GLBT novels even exist.  So, I am taking this opportunity to finally review a book one of my teens suggested I read during GLBT Pride Month.  The basic premise of this story was that two [gay] boys were attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the longest kiss.  The strangest thing, though, was that they were not boyfriends.  They were, in fact, ex-boyfriends.  But, Harry and Craig were not kissing merely for the fun of kissing or even just to break the existing world record.  In fact, kissing for 32 hours was a rather grueling experience, both physically and emotionally.  But their 32-hour-long kiss was worth all of the difficulties it presented because it was a statement of support for their mutual friend, Tariq, who was the victim of a hate crime.  Although the “Greek chorus” of narrators — men who had died of AIDS — seemed a bit clunky at times, I think that narration ultimately worked as a means by which to educate younger readers about (late 20th century) GLBT history, the progress the GLBT community has made thus far, and how far we still have to go.  I really enjoyed this story, though I have to admit to shedding a tear or two.  I highly recommend this for fans of other David Levithan books (like Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Every Day) and suspect that it will likely end up on many YA literature syllabi as required GLBT reading.

Thanks to this audiobook, I now know that September 8th is the anniversary of the day that Stargirl (aka Susan Caraway) first laid eyes on Leo Borlock.  As she strolled through the Mica High cafeteria with her ukelele and sang Happy Birthday to some other unsuspecting stranger, she saw the fear in Leo’s eyes as he worried that she might come and sing to him.  Of all the stuff that happened in this story, Stargirl’s remembrance of that day was a pretty small thing, but it really stuck with me.  Why?  Because *MY* birthday is September 8th!  Though I seriously doubt Jerry Spinelli wrote that into his book for me, I wonder if he’s friends with Jon Scieszka and used that reference as a shout out to him.  (Yeah. I share a birthday with Jon Scieszka — and Jo Knowles — how awesome is that?!?)

Anyhow… I like the fact that this book was written as a letter from Stargirl to Leo in diary form.  It was cool to see things from her perspective this time.  I mean, it was easy enough to see from Leo’s narration (in Stargirl) that she was a free spirit, but it was cool to see exactly how her thought process worked.  I am most definitely a “Type A” personality, so it took a lot for me to get into her head and to understand where she was coming from, but it made a little more sense as she explained herself.  Living without clocks, for example, seems kinda cool — but I think I would go batty after only a day or two.

With her parents off traveling all the time and her brothers away at school, Lucy has learned to enjoy being alone much of the time.  Since she doesn’t really have a lot of friends, let alone a boyfriend, and rarely leaves her apartment except for school, her parent’s aren’t even worried to leave her alone in the apartment as they travel the world. They figure, apparently, that she can’t get into too much trouble on her own.  Lucy’s whole world gets flipped upside down, though, the day she gets stuck in an elevator with Owen during a massive blackout.  Lucy had been heading up to her family’s 24th floor apartment, and Owen was heading up to the roof to escape his basement apartment (he lives there because his father recently became the building superintendent).  After getting rescued, the two wander the dark streets of NYC and enjoy the fantastic world in which ice cream vendors give away their melting wares and stars are actually visible above the city that never sleeps.  When the power comes back on, nevertheless, they are jarred back into their very different realities.  Lucy is soon whisked away to live with her family in Europe, because her dad got a major promotion, and Owen ends up heading west with his father, after he finds himself jobless again.  Based on a conversation they had about cheesy postcards (during the blackout), they end up staying in touch via postcards instead of with the standard text messages and emails most teens now use.  Fans of Sarah Dessen-style romances should definitely read this book.

Anthony “Antsy” Bonano was one of the few people in the world who ever noticed Calvin Schwa (aka The Schwa).  As Antsy said, The Schwa was “functionally invisible,” and it seemed that he was right.  Kids would walk right past him without seeing him, even if he wore ridiculous clothing.  Teachers would look past his raised hand or even mark him absent despite his presence/attempted participation in class.  And his own father would often not realize he was home.  Antsy first tested his hypothesis — with the aforementioned ridiculous clothing — and then he did his best to capitalize on The Schwa Effect.  He figured people would pay good money for someone who was able to spy without getting caught or who was capable of slipping a late assignment into a teacher’s bag unnoticed, and he was right.  The only thing he didn’t really think about was the fact that The Schwa was a person with emotions like everyone else.  Sure, it was cool that he could sometimes get away with things other kids couldn’t… but being invisible can get pretty lonely, too.

Fans of the Unwind Dystology might have a hard time believing that this book was written by the same author, but they won’t likely be disappointed — as long as they can appreciate a wry/sarcastic sense of humor, that is . Here’s a little taste of Antsy for people who are on the fence:

“Life is like a bad haircut. At first it looks awful, then you kind of get used to it, and before you know it, it it grows out and you gotta get another haircut that maybe won’t be so bad, unless of course you keep going to SuperClips, where the hairstylists are so terrible they oughta be using safety scissors, and when they’re done you look like your head got caught in a ceiling fan.  So life goes on, good haircut, bad haircut, until finally you go bald, and it don’t matter no more.
I told this wisdom to my mother, and she said I oughta put it in a book, then burn it.  Some people just can’t appreciate the profound.”

After reading and enjoying Surf Mules and Ghetto Cowboy, I was looking forward to seeing how Neri would handle this topic . Once I downloaded the ARC and started reading it, though, I second-guessed my decision.  Some of the depictions of violence literally made me sick to my stomach.  When I got to the very first knockout, I had to put the book (well, Kindle) down and just read something else because I was so utterly disturbed.  I was talking to a friend about it and saying that I didn’t know if I could handle reading this story, but he reminded me that this is an important story to have available to teens and that pushing myself beyond my comfort zone to finish this story would make me better able to recommend it to those who needed it.  After all, this isn’t a fantasy or science fiction story with gratuitous violence; this is a contemporary, realistic story about an actual problem in urban neighborhoods.  Real teens are “playing” the knockout game, and Neri’s story can help people — whether players or outsiders — better understand the factors that lead people to play and the faulty logic many players use to justify their participation.  People who don’t actually read the story might fear that Neri glorifies the game, but anyone who reads the whole book will understand that, though he humanizes the players and explains the motivations they might have in playing this deadly game, he makes it clear that their cop-outs and excuses do NOT justify their destructive actions.  So glad I made myself go back and finish this one.  Hopefully, the timely publication of this book will succeed in educating and deterring would-be players.

Sam was always a bit of a loner.  He found it difficult to connect with other people and had only a few friends.  One night, while Sam was working at his fast-food job, he had an unusual encounter with a customer who took one look at him and started asking strange questions about where he came from and whether he was granted permission to move to Seattle.  But, Sam had always lived in Seattle.  And why would he have needed permission to move there anyway?  So weird!  Then, at the end of their shift, Sam and his friends got attacked by a huge man with superhuman strength.  Things went from weird to scary pretty fast.  It turned out that Sam never knew it, but he was a necromancer.  Suddenly, many of the quirky things about himself and his family had supernatural explanations and started to make more sense.  Sadly, “making more sense” and “making sense” aren’t exactly the same.

Lots of action, a bit of mystery, and sarcastic/twisted humor made this book hard to put down.  Readers who enjoy books like Killer Pizza and I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It should definitely check this one out.  I know I’m looking forward to reading the sequel (Necromancing the Stone) when my “to be read” pile gets a little shorter, though I’m a little afraid those chapter titles will also get a bunch of songs stuck in my head. 😉

From looking at the cover of this book, I assumed it would be a historical romance novel.  I honestly thought it would read like The Luxe or Manor of Secrets, and I was hoping for a Downton Abbey fix.  And though there was a touch of romance, my assumption was pretty far off.  Gemma Doyle’s experiences in a London finishing school (in 1895 ) were historically accurate, and she did experience some romantic entanglements, but the plot was primarily focused on the supernatural forces at play in Gemma’s life.  While part of me wishes I knew about this book when it first came out, part of me is happy that all three books were already published and available as audiobooks so I could listen to them in rapid succession!

Gemma had a fairly uncomplicated life until the day a strange creature attacked her mother in an Indian marketplace.  Rather than be captured by the creature, her mother committed suicide.  Gemma’s father insisted on telling everyone that his wife died of an illness, but Gemma knew the truth and was racked with guilt over the fact that her mother was only in that area of the marketplace because she (Gemma) had run off in a snit.  After witnessing the attack/suicide, Gemma started having visions — and the visions only got worse after she was sent off to Spence Academy.  Trying to make new friends and to succeed in finishing school while also figuring out what was behind the visions proved extremely challenging, but these challenges were no match for Gemma’s pluck and determination.