Book Review Nineteen: Twenty Boy Summer

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, published by Little, Brown and Company.

I had been wanting to read this book for a while but it was hardcover and expensive and bumped down a few notches on my reading list. I found the perfect opportunity when I got to the Teen Festival and realized that not only was Sarah Ockler there but the book was also just released in paperback! So of course I bought it and had her sign it on the spot. I felt bad that I hadn't read it yet, but she was incredibly sweet. Twenty Boy Summer is her first novel so I think she was pretty excited (and privileged I might add) to be at the Teen Festival with many distinguished young adult authors.

The premise of this novel was intriguing. Anna and Frankie are sixteen-year-old best friends who have been friends their whole life. Their friendship always had a third counterpart: Frankie's older brother, Matt. However, Matt died in a combination heart failure-car accident the year before the novel starts. Before his death Anna and Matt shared a kiss that changed their entire friendship. Their feelings for each other intensified and Matt planned to tell Frankie about the two of them but his death changed all of that. Anna felt she had to keep the secret and her promise to Matt so she didn't admit it to anyone except the pages of her journal.

I find the theme of this book more beautiful and poetic than the actual plot. Anna has to find a way to grieve and remember Matt but also forgive him for leaving her, accept that he isn't coming back, and move on to actually living her life. The theme is taking advantage of every single moment and living life to its fullest. There aren't any second chances, so be grateful for every moment that you have. Anna tends to dwell on her memories and often thinks "what if" in the hopes that if one thing had occurred differently she would have inadvertently saved Matt's life. That would have been devastating for me because my favorite parts were Anna's memories of Matt.

Ockler describes their first kiss beautifully, "I kissed him back. I forgot time. I forgot my feet. I forgot the people outside, waiting for us to rejoin the party. I forgot what happens when friends cross into this space. And if my lungs didn't fill and my heart didn't beat and my blood didn't pump without my intervention, I would have forgotten them, too" (pg 7). Most of the book follows Anna's frustration and exhaustion over keeping this secret from Frankie. Frankie wants them to meet/kiss twenty boys over their summer vacation and in the midst find true love. Anna doesn't have the heart to tell her that she already found her true love. What is unexpected is that Anna does find herself having feelings for a boy in Zanzibar Bay, Sam. I didn't want to think that she could find love so easily after Matt, but she is only sixteen therefore she has her love ahead of her. She didn't get to experience much of love with Matt besides a few weeks of sneaking around. I suspect it would be easier for her to move on than for someone in a serious relationship. I think this makes her sadness revolving Matt's death more about his friendship and his stage as a brother-figure in her life rather than as a potential lover. "But when he died, I saw---nothing. There was nothing left to see. It happened and it was impossible and beautiful and then it ended before it even really began, leaving nothing behind but secrets and broken hearts" (pg 267).

It was a good book and I'm definitely glad that I read it, however it wasn't as much of a page-turner as I was expecting. I wonder if I would have liked it better if the beginning featured Anna's little affair with Matt and then we experienced the car accident in the present and then jumped ahead to the future, rather than being a year ahead and looking back every so often to explain what happened. I think it would have allowed for a wider range of emotions and for me to really connect with Anna better. Regardless, I love how Anna developed during the novel into a mature young woman who not only accepted what happened but also realized that Matt will always be with her, just as Sam will always be with her. She can't allow her life to stall and plateau every time there is a difficult feeling or decision. Every moment will forever change her but she can choose to have them change her for the better.

I will be keeping my eye on Sarah Ockler. If you like Twenty Boy Summer, her next novel is Fixing Delilah Hannaford and will be released November 2010.

Book Review Eighteen: This Lullaby

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen, published by Penguin Group.

I can't pass up a Sarah Dessen book now that I've been introduced to her! This one was no different. I happened to have some motivation to hit up the library one day. I sat there for literally an hour and read the first two chapters of this book. I liked it so much that I went out and bought it the next day. There's just something so enchanting about her books that makes you want to read them in one sitting but at the same time want them to last forever. That's exactly how I felt when I read Audrey, Wait!

Remy, the main character, is a recent high school graduate who is in control, organized, and thinks she knows what she wants in life. She doesn't believe in love lasting forever and she is constantly finding flaws in her endless stream of boyfriends. Her recent ex is Jonathon who she dumps in the beginning of the novel. She plans to have fun during her last summer before college and wants to spend it with Lissa, Jess, and Chloe, her three best friends. They remind me of the three best friends from Before I Fall. Just like Oliver's characters, Dessen gives personalities, histories, and dreams to all of her characters, no matter how minor.

Remy's mother is constantly falling in and out of love. She's been married several times and this novel features her latest marriage to Don, a car salesman. And if there isn't enough focus on love in Remy's life ... her brother Chris is also in love with his girlfriend, Jenny, Lissa with Adam, and even Jess becomes infatuated with a few boys. It's up to Remy and Chloe to remain cynical about the four-letter-word. However, Dexter has the power to change everything. He's a musician, like Remy's father who abandoned her when she was young but left her with a hit song to remember him by, and he's quirky, clumsy, blunt, and in love with her. She allows him a chance, despite his many flaws, but she still doesn't know if she can allow herself to be vulnerable enough to really let him in.

Sarah Dessen always develops her characters really well. They have flaws, they have promise, they have lovable traits, but they also have a past. That is the most intriguing part about Remy. She has this past of upsets that her mother caused. She has this really interesting backstory of watching her mother's failed marriages and her mother wrapped up in her latest novel (her mom is a romance novelist) and a bad reputation for allowing boys to go all the way, drinking, and smoking too much. I felt like there was this whole other story about Remy that I was missing. It's like you're really good friends with a person, you know everything about her, and then she disappears for two years. When that friend comes back things are just like old times, except no matter how much she fills you in on those two years you're still going to be out of the loop. You weren't there to experience it with her. Just like with Remy when she explains her bad side: "Her hair was flat, her face a little sweaty. She looked drunk, but I would have known her anywhere. It was everybody else who always liked to think she was gone for good" (pg 101). This made me wonder if something especially bad had happened to her. Was she taken advantage of in the past? Had she let someone in before only for him to break her heart? I felt like there was a strong backstory that just lingered around waiting to be explained. "How did I know this would be any different? The story could have been the same, easily; me drunk, in a deserted place. Someone there, reaching out for me. It had happened before. Who could blame me for my cold, hard heart?" (pg 108). Only that's the extent that Dessen shares with us.

The other really amazing thing about these characters is that they all influenced each other. Every character had a part in creating the way the rest of the characters turned out. Remy's mother clearly affected her perspective on love, but Remy (maybe inadvertently) also affected the way Chloe dealt with boys; "Because if I wasn't cold, hard Remy, then she couldn't be the Chloe she was, either." If Remy can fall in love with Dexter and throw all of her rules about boys out the window, then Chloe has the chance to fall in love also. I think that scares Chloe just as much as it scares Remy. I also think that one of the main influences on Remy's new view of love (besides Dexter) is her brother Chris. He's seen the worst of what it can do for someone, just like her, yet he focuses on seeing the best it can do.

So, in case you can't tell, I was in awe of Dessen's talent when I read this. I must have highlighted something every five pages. It was definitely worth the 8.99 for paperback.

Book Review Seventeen: Graylight

Graylight by Naomi Nowak, published by ComicsLit.

Honestly, I wouldn't pick this book for myself. My boyfriend bought it for me as a gift and I think he mainly liked the drug-induced illustrations. They truly do have the colors of what I imagine an acid trip to be like. There's an example below of the unconventional format Nowak uses for her illustrations. Generally I am used to there being lines or boxes to separate time or space in graphic novels. The most prominent example of this is Persepolis where not only the words in the box are important but the size of the box as well. If the box were to take up the entire page than that shows the reader it's extremely essential to the theme, plot, and character development. The author wouldn't waste valuable space on something nonessential. However, Nowak disturbs the traditional format of graphic novels and comics by overlapping scenes and characters. She lets her characters expand out of the boxes and into the excess space on the page. They literally are not confined by time or dimension.

The plot of this novel revolves around Aurora. She is a mother who promised her son that no woman would ever hurt him the way that she hurt his father. Basically she is protecting him from falling for someone just as beautiful and powerful as herself. She is also an author (and apparently a witch) who has scheduled an interview with the young journalist, Erik. Erik is smitten with a young woman, Sasha, who is portrayed as beautiful, strange, and a bit of a thief. He invites her along to the interview where she rubs Aurora the wrong way. Sasha steals a book from the home on her way out which forces Edmund to go after her. This is a pivotal point in the plot because she has the opportunity to seduce Edmund and to hurt him. There isn't a huge plot or conflict after this. There's an important turn of events but because it's "a quick read" and not heavy on the dialogue or narration it seems to all be resolved quickly. In order to make the novel last longer and feel suspense I would recommend taking a while to peruse the illustrations and really concentrate on the colors and the overlap.

I like plot. I like character development. And I like words. Therefore this wasn't exactly the novel for me (not to say that it didn't have all three, just that they weren't priorities for Nowak). It had an interesting, yet confusing, storyline. I understand it after reading it over twice, however Nowak complicated the chronology of the story and the setting of the story with her unconventional format and use of color. I suppose it didn't help that the main characters all looked so similar; I was confused in several areas as to who was talking to whom.

Due to a few graphic images and the confusing yet advanced storyline I wouldn't recommend this novel for anyone younger than 13-16. Although I have commented on the strange use of color and its drug-like effect, many of the pictures are indeed beautiful and beg to be studied at length. One will find herself going back to this book long after reading it just to look at these images and marvel at Nowak's artistic talent.

Book Review Sixteen: Far From You

Far From You by Lisa Schroeder, published by Simon Pulse.

The main character of this novel is Alice, named after Alice in Wonderland which was her mother's favorite book. Her mother died of cancer, her father remarried, her stepmother is pregnant with a baby girl... Alice's life seems to be falling apart. When the baby is born Alice feels replaced in her own family and home. The first part of the story follows Alice's life as she struggles with the feeling of abandonment by her mother, betrayal by her father, hurt from her best friend, and love for her boyfriend. It sounds like a typical teenage girl's life. The only thing that upset me was how unkind she was being to her stepmother, Victoria.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: verse form is not a good form for a novel. There isn't nearly enough idiosyncratic detail used to be appreciated as a poem and there isn't enough regular detail to allow the reader to escape into Alice's world. However, Schroeder utilized a lot of metaphors and similes to get her point across:

"The snowflakes

toss and tumble,

each different,

and yet

the same.

The snowflakes

of my life." (pg 5).

Part One shows Alice getting very possessive of objects as if they are her mother and not just memories. Items such as the sketches, the guitar, and the painting become symbols for the past and her inability to move on. It also shows Ivy, her new stepsister, as a symbol for her future without her mother. Alice is torn between a past that brought her happiness and a future that scares her. Alice is tested by this decision between her two lives at the end of Part One. She finds herself lost with Victoria and Ivy in the snow-covered woods stuck inside their car. They're fighting to stay alive when Victoria leaves Alice and Ivy to get help.

Part Two shows Alice's struggle in keeping herself and Ivy alive. You'll have to read it to find out what happens to them, but I can tell you there is a real epiphany when Alice realizes that life is bigger than just her. She also starts to equate Victoria with motherhood and associated herself with Ivy. I think that's a real progression from her previous state of only caring about her own mother.

Interestingly enough, Schroeder was at the Teen Book Festival, as was Ellen Hopkins. It's interesting because their books are very comparable. They both write in verse form, they both tell meaningful yet depressing stories, and they both refer to an overwhelming power as a monster. Hopkins called crystal meth a monster that consumed Kristina and Schroeder later refers to the snow as a monster that hides the world from Alice.

Favorite Quote: "Maybe it's not about

determination

or love

or how hard

you can fight.

Maybe it's just about

fate

and what is meant

to be." (pg 250).

Book Review Fifteen: Before I Fall

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, published by Harper Collins.

I was on vacation knowing that I would soon be bored out of my mind at the airport. I had already finished the three books I brought with me. So what's a girl to do? Head to the nearest Wal*Mart and pick up a new book! Every book was basically about vampires or witches or something supernatural, except this one. (Besides, the part about Samantha's Groundhog day scenario). Also, do you see that quote on the cover? It's from Jay Asher who wrote Thirteen Reasons Why! He loved this book, which means I absolutely had to read it.

The main character is Samantha Kingston. She has three best friends: Ally, Elody, and Lindsay. They're the popular kids in school which mainly reminded me of Mean Girls. There are certain instances where you can clearly see their brutality and bitchiness. They don't have respect for their teachers or parents, they don't really care about the law or manners, and they pretty much want to have fun at whatever cost. But Oliver didn't create one-dimensional characters (thank goodness) so as February 12th continues on I discovered what traits there were to love in Samantha and Lindsay, what made Kent so special, and what in Rob could disappoint again and again.

Plot: Samantha dies on February 12th and wakes up the next day only to discover that it's February 12th all over again. She knows what's going to happen and soon finds that she's powerless to stop her death, powerless to stop the endless cycle of the same day, and that there is another life intricately linked to her own. This plot is unique in that Samantha truly grows as an individual more in her "afterlife" than she did during her "real life." Also, the reader gets to see what small changes can affect the big picture and what mysteries have already affected the characters in ways that they didn't know. I don't want to give it away but you'll soon find out that Juliet is a much more important character than is first let on.

You may or may not know that I intend to write young adult literature. I have a book started but after reading Before I Fall I have the feeling that I have to go back and make my characters more believable. I first constructed them after characters I fell in love with when I was younger: the Sweet Valley High kids, the Babysitter's Club, you know, wholesome good kids. However, that's not really today's teenager. Oliver is more familiar with the way teens really talk and act. I'm not saying there aren't wholesome good kids out there anymore, after all, I'm still one. But I do think they talk more about sex, drugs, and drinking than I wanted to admit. I can't hide from it anymore, which means I'm going to have to rethink how much of the "teenage world" (such as underage drinking, fooling around, and texting) I want in my novel. Oliver, on the other hand, handles it with grace. Her characters are experienced, yet vulnerable, they're badass, yet layered with hurt and empathy. They're lovable and surprising, they're multi-faceted with fully thought-up histories. She reminds me of Sarah Dessen in that regard: these girls don't feel fictional or created.

This novel may not sound like it has a surprising plot but there are truly key points that will surprise you, including the ending, not to mention the suspense and mystery in not knowing how many times Samantha will relive the day, if she'll end up saving herself, whose fate is linked to hers and how she can affect that individual. Jay Asher says it best, "This story races forward, twisting in a new direction every few pages, its characters spinning my emotions from affection to frustration, anger to compassion." Very true, and worth the emotional roller coaster ride.