Tag Archives: reviews

Audio Book Review: Memoirs Of A Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

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Memoirs Of A Teenage Amnesiac CoverBook: Memoirs Of A Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin, Narrated by Caitlin Greer

Published August 2007 by Listening Library|6 hours, 40 minutes

Where I Got It: I borrowed the audio book from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Blog Graphic-What It's About

If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn’t have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn’t have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn’t have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her “Chief.” She’d know about her mom’s new family. She’d know about her dad’s fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn’t have wanted to kiss him back.

But Naomi picked heads.

After her remarkable debut, Gabrielle Zevin has crafted an imaginative second novel all about love and second chances.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I liked Memoirs Of A Teenage Amnesiac!   I didn’t love it or anything, but it’s a cute story about a girl re-discovering things after losing her memories from the last few years.

Even though the book had its predictable moments, I also had no idea how things would be resolved or where they were headed.  I really liked that, and I think it fit really well with Naomi’s story.  I didn’t quite connect with Naomi, because she definitely came across as selfish and spoiled and stupid at times.  I did feel for her, though, because I can’t begin to imagine what it would be like to have an accident and lose the last few years of your life. It’s amazing how one moment can change everything, and this book really highlights that.

A lot of the other characters were really interesting (like Will and James), and I thought their stories really brought out Naomi’s story.  There’s definitely a lot going on, but overall, the book had a really good balance of serious moments and some more light-hearted moments.  And I really liked the narrator!  Her voice sounded so familiar, and I don’t know why, because I’ve never listened anything narrated by Greer before.  But her voice was perfect for Naomi, and she was exactly how I pictured Naomi’s voice to sound.

I don’t really have much else to say about Memoirs.  I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve forgotten what I wanted to say, or if it’s because not a lot stood out to me.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

3 stars.  I liked it, and it was really cute, but I also didn’t love it.

Book Review: Luna by Julie Anne Peters

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Luna CoverBook: Luna by Julie Anne Peters

Published September 2008 by Little, Brown Books For Young Readers|248 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Blog Graphic-What It's About

Regan’s brother Liam can’t stand the person he is during the day. Like the moon from whom Liam has chosen his female namesake, his true self, Luna, only reveals herself at night. In the secrecy of his basement bedroom Liam transforms himself into the beautiful girl he longs to be, with help from his sister’s clothes and makeup. Now, everything is about to change-Luna is preparing to emerge from her cocoon. But are Liam’s family and friends ready to welcome Luna into their lives? Compelling and provocative, this is an unforgettable novel about a transgender teen’s struggle for self-identity and acceptance.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I’ve heard some really good things about Luna, and figured I’d read it.  I have mixed feelings about it, though, and it’s mostly because of the characters and (to me) the reliance on stereotypes and lack of nuance.

It was really frustrating to read Luna’s story through Regan’s eyes.  Regan came across as really selfish and whiny, and I felt like she was the stereotypical “it’s so hard and it’s such a burden to have a sibling who’s different, woe is me because I have to keep their secret, and if people find out that my brother is transgender, I’ll never have my own identity because I’ll only be seen as the sister of someone who is transgender” sibling.

Instead of feeling for her, and how hard it has to be to be your sister’s confidante and secret keeper, I instead spent most of the book feeling like she needed to get over herself.  Considering how close they were supposed to be, all I can tell you about Luna is that she is very stereotypical female. That’s not a bad thing, but we get no insight into Luna as a person and how much Luna is struggling to be accepted for who she is.  Luna is going through a lot, and Regan’s selfishness and need to be a martyr really took away from Luna’s story.

I felt very much removed and distanced from what was going on, and even the flashbacks we get are more about Regan than they are about Luna.

I also thought that Luna needed a lot more development, and she wasn’t very nuanced to me.  I did mention that Luna was a little too stereotypical- very into make-up and clothes and shopping, but not all females are. I’m not sure if the lack of nuance is because of the filter in which we see Luna, or if there’s just a lack of character development.  Maybe both.  Either way, this book is not about Luna and her transition, it’s about how Luna is ruining Regan’s life and how much better Regan’s life would be if Luna were “normal.”

Looking back at what I just wrote, it’s definitely clear to me that my feelings aren’t as mixed as I thought.  I wanted to read more about Luna, not Luna’s spoiled brat of a sister, and I wish we saw more of Luna.  Both Luna and Regan narrating could have been interesting, but given how stereotypical the characters were, I don’t know if Luna narrating even a few chapters would have made a difference.  Luna felt more like an object than an actual person, which was really disappointing because Luna’s story seemed much more interesting than Regan’s.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

1 star.  Regan was too frustrating and hard to care about, and her selfishness really took away from Lu0a’s story.

Book Review: Evolution by Kelly Carrero

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Evolution CoverBook: Evolution by Kelly Carrero

Self-Published by Kelly Carrero in October 2012|138 pages

Where I Got It: I own the e-book

Series: Evolution #1

Genre: YA Sci-Fi/Paranormal

Blog Graphic-What It's About

Seventeen year old Jade Sommers’ life is turned upside down the moment she sees the inch long cut across her face heal right before her eyes.

Jade thinks she is going insane, but her boyfriend, Aiden Scott, knows better. He knows what she is. And like him, she was born this way.

Now if finding out that people like her shouldn’t exist isn’t bad enough, Jade’s best friend is kidnapped by the psycho who terrorises her dreams. With the help of Aiden, Jade has to figure out how to save her before it’s to late.

But what Jade doesn’t know is not everything is what it seems. She is merely a puppet in a sadistic game to find out what she is truly capable of, and that game has only just begun.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I’ve had Evolution for a while, and finally started reading it, but I also wasn’t a big fan of the book.  It had the potential to be really interesting, but it also fell short.

The book is sort of based on that idea that we only use a certain percentage of our brains, only in this book, there are people who have evolved to the point that they have special abilities because they can use a larger percentage of their brain.  Sort of like that movie that came out a couple of years ago with Morgan Freeman and Scarlett Johansson, Lucy?  That’s what I was reminded of, but without the whole drug-trafficking story line.

So, there were things about this book that didn’t make sense to me.  She was told she had all of these abilities, but her boyfriend, the only person she knows who has the same abilities as her, doesn’t really explain what’s going on, and why some people can do what they can, and others can’t.  The part in the summary where it mentions someone terrorizing her dreams, and that she’s a puppet in this huge game?  That didn’t really happen in the book. At all.  I finished this book (which was a lot shorter than I thought it would be) with more questions than I did when I started.  Did her boyfriend know the entire time that Jade has supernatural abilities?  Because the summary made it seem like he knew, and hung around in Australia for that reason.

I was also left wondering why someone kidnapped her best friend, why a select few have this ability, and what sort of “game” is going on?  Considering everything the summary says this book is about, I really expected a lot more to be going on.  I want more of an explanation than the idea that some people are born really advanced.  This first book makes it seem like it’s this very select group of people…and yet it also seems like it’ might be somewhat common.

And Jade’s mom is super-absent, but has no problem with her teenage daughter constantly staying at her boyfriend’s house.  That seemed a little weird to me, and it makes me wonder what was going on with her mom, because her mom constantly blew her off.  And it seemed like the mom was hiding something.

There’s just no backstory, and while the idea was interesting, I just didn’t like how it was told.  It was too rushed, too short, and really hard to believe. And I know I have said that there are no explanations for anything, but it was really frustrating.  Things happened for no reason, and the book didn’t make a lot of sense because of that.

The characters were a little too…boring.  Aiden was too perfect, and Jade was not memorable.  Actually, Aiden wasn’t very memorable either, and I could not tell you a single thing about them.  I really couldn’t.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

1 star.  The idea was sort of interesting, but the lack of explanation about pretty much anything makes me not want to keep reading the series.

Audio Book Review: Welcome To Night Vale By Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

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Welcome To Night Vale CoverBook: Welcome To Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, Narrated by Cecil Baldwin

Published October 2015 by HarperPerennial|12 hours, 3 minutes (audio) and 401 (print)

Where I Got It: I own the audio book and I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: Adult…I have no clue what genre to put this book in.  Um, general fiction…but that’s too broad, and doesn’t represent anything of this book. It’s a little bit of everything. Let’s go with that.

Blog Graphic-What It's About

From the creators of the wildly popular Welcome to Night Valepodcast comes an imaginative mystery of appearances and disappearances that is also a poignant look at the ways in which we all struggle to find ourselves…no matter where we live.

Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.

Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked “King City” by a mysterious man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase. Everything about him and his paper unsettles her, especially the fact that she can’t seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and that no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City and the man in the tan jacket before she herself unravels.

Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton’s son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane’s started to see her son’s father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier, when they were both teenagers. Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it.

Diane’s search to reconnect with her son and Jackie’s search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: “King City”. It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures…if they can ever find it.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to talk about the Welcome To Night Vale book!  I’m a huge fan of the podcast, and I even dressed up as Cecil for Halloween.  I listened to the audio book for Night Vale (of course) but I also wanted to see how Night Vale was in print, and I wanted to wait until I finished both before I reviewed it.

It took me a few days to finish the audio (I generally don’t listen to audio books on weekends, which is why it took me a little longer than normal to finish it), and it was completely awesome!  I loved the story, even though there were times where it was really repetitive and repeated something that happened a couple of paragraphs earlier almost word for word.  And of course, the narration was completely awesome, which isn’t surprising, considering Cecil is also the voice of the Night Vale Podcast.

The book is very much how I pictured a Night Vale book to be, even though I wasn’t sure what a Night Vale book would entail.  It stands alone really well, so if you’ve never listened to the podcast, you jump right in, and know what’s going on.  For fans of the podcast, there are plenty of nods to the podcast, which was really fun.  But if you haven’t listened…you should, but it’s not necessary to this book, because it is very much a stand-alone book. There is something about the Night Vale book that lends itself well to an audio book format, and I think that’s largely because it’s based on a podcast, which is very much an audio…thing.  I’m not sure what word I’m looking for, but Night Vale the book is something I very much recommend as an audio book.

I didn’t enjoy it in print at all, though.  It took me a long time to get through the print edition- around 2 1/2 months- and part of it is the weirdness of December, where I didn’t read a single thing.  But part of it is that I had a hard time getting through Night Vale in print form.  I think the main reason why Night Vale in print didn’t work for me was because I am so used to listening to Night Vale that reading it was really weird, and I couldn’t quite get over that.  However, since I had listened to the audio and then read the book, I did hear Cecil’s voice in my head when I was reading it.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

5 stars.  Honestly, I really do recommend reading the Night Vale novel- but I’d definitely go for the audio book, because it’s fantastic whether you’re a fan of the podcast or not.  As for print, I’m really hesitant to recommend it for the reasons I mentioned above, but go for whatever format floats your boat.  And you definitely don’t need to be a podcast listener to enjoy it or understand what’s going on in the book (but really, if you haven’t listened to the podcast, you need to go do that now).

Book Review: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

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Crimson Bound CoverBook: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

Published May 2015 by Balzer+Bray|441 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Fantasy

Blog Graphic-What It's About

When Rachelle was fifteen, she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless—straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her hunt for the legendary sword that might save their world. Together, they navigate the opulent world of the courtly elite, where beauty and power reign and no one can be trusted. And as they become unexpected allies, they discover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

Inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is an exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

Crimson Bound is a really interesting take on Little Red Riding Hood, and there are definitely a lot of parallels between Crimson Bound and the story of Little Red Riding Hood that we all know.  After reading Cruel Beauty, I was really looking forward to Crimson Bound, which I liked almost as much as Cruel Beauty.

I thought the mystery of the bloodbound and the Devourer was really interesting, but it did get sort of confusing at the end.  I definitely had to re-read parts of it to see if would make any more sense, and it sort of did, but not much.  Something about the world and the mythology made me think of the His Fair Assassins trilogy by Robin LaFevers, so if you like that series, you might want to check out this book.

It’s also pretty slow for a good chunk of the book, so it takes a while for anything interesting to happen, but I actually didn’t mind the slow pace, because there is a really interesting world we see in the book, and I just wanted to absorb as much of as I could.  There are a lot of hints and it seems really vague, so I might have to hunt down a more clear explanation of the mythology and everything with Zisa and Tyr to see if that will make it less confusing.  I did really like the description of the Forest, which seemed more metaphysical than anything else.

I didn’t particularly care for the love triangle, mostly because I didn’t feel like there was anything between Rachelle and either love interest.  I don’t have any strong feelings towards Armand or Erec, but I really liked Rachelle and how she tried so hard to hold onto her humanity.  It is a lot darker than I expected, even for a YA fantasy, but I really liked that about the book, even though it didn’t have the same spark that Cruel Beauty did. There wasn’t as action much as I thought there would be, given the summary, and while I didn’t mind, I think that’s why the book had a slower pace. And like I said earlier, I didn’t mind the slower pace, but a little more action throughout the book would have been nice.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

3 stars.  I liked it, especially the world and the mythology, but I also wish the mythology was a little less confusing.

Book Review: Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

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Perfect Ruin CoverBook: Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

Published October 2013 by Simon & Schuster|253 pages

Where I Got It: I own the e-book

Series: The Interment Chronicles #1

Genre: YA Dystopia

Blog Graphic-What It's About

On the floating city of Internment,you can be anything you dream – a novelist or a singer, a florist or a factory worker… Your life is yours to embrace or to squander. There’s only one rule: you don’t approach THE EDGE. If you do, it’s already over.

Morgan Stockhour knows getting too close to the edge of Internment, the floating city and her home, can lead to madness. Even though her older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. There’s too much for her on Internment: her parents, best friend Pen, and her betrothed, Basil. Her life is ordinary and safe, even if she sometimes does wonder about the ground and why it’s forbidden.

Then a murder, the first in a generation, rocks the city. With whispers swirling and fear on the wind, Morgan can no longer stop herself from investigating, especially once she meets Judas. Betrothed to the victim, Judas is being blamed for the murder, but Morgan is convinced of his innocence. Secrets lay at the heart of Internment, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find—or whom she will lose.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I liked Perfect Ruin!  It’s a really interesting concept, a floating city about earth.  It’s definitely a world where the ground is forbidden, and it makes you wonder why they’re floating above earth, why the ground is forbidden, and what’s really going on in this society.

It was hard to get into at first, but by the end, I was really curious about the ground and the Princess and their technology and medicine.  It was hard to get through at first, because I was really bored, but it does get more interesting as the book goes on.  It is a shame, though, because some of the things that happen in the beginning had the potential to grab my attention, and it just didn’t do that.

The concept of Jumpers was really weird at first, and it didn’t make a lot of sense, but it does get explained throughout the book.  Something I’m wondering, though, is how much sense the world is going to make by the end of the series.  I did lose interest in her Chemical Garden trilogy by the time I got around to the last book, and there were things about that last book that didn’t make sense.  It makes me wonder if that’s how this series will be, which makes me hesitant to keep reading, even though I really want to keep going.

Morgan fell really flat, as did a lot of the characters, and that might be why I had a hard time getting into it.  They didn’t really stand out, and Morgan didn’t really have a personality, so it was hard to get completely invested in her story, and even when a certain event happened, it was hard to feel or care about how it affected Morgan.  It’s not good when I can remember more about the main character’s brother and her best friend than the actual main character.  At least they had some personality and depth to them.  Maybe that will change in the following books, but in this one, Morgan made no impression on me whatsoever.

Still, I am interested in continuing the series at some point in the future, though I won’t be picking up the second book anytime soon.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

3 stars.  I liked it, because I thought the floating city to be pretty different, and I feel like there’s a really interesting world there. I’ll definitely be picking up the next book at some point, even though it probably won’t be soon.

Book Review: For Always by Danielle Sibarium

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For Always CoverBook: For Always by Danielle Sibarium

Published January 2012 by KFR Communications|162 pages

Where I Got It: I own the e-book

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Blog Graphic-What It's About

You never really get over your first love. Such is the case for fourteen-year-old Stephanie Barrano, self-proclaimed misfit and death magnet. A freshman in high school, Stephanie is befriended by Jordan Brewer, a hot, in-demand senior, who pulls her from the outer circle of obscurity into the realm of acceptance. Jordan quickly works his way into Stephanie’s heart. He’s her everything. And the only person she trusts with the truth about her father’s death. But he won’t act on the strong feelings he has for her. Stephanie vows to wait for him, knowing in time she’ll win his heart.

Two months before her eighteenth birthday, Jordan serves as an impromptu prom date. After sharing a magical evening, Jordan leaves Stephanie with the promise of a future together. Then tragedy strikes. Jordan not only shuts Stephanie out, he also blames her for what happened. Feeling broken and beaten, will she try one last time to get through to Jordan or will she lose him forever?

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I didn’t like For Always.  Really, I should have guessed that it wouldn’t be my thing, but it also seemed like it would be really cute and sweet, and instead, the romance drove me completely bonkers.

So, it felt like things were very one-sided- I got the impression that Stephanie was lot more into Jordan, and that he didn’t reciprocate.  I also got the impression he knew that she was into him, and that he strung her along, knowing she was super-into him.  I didn’t understand why she was so into him, and I really wish we saw more of them together, because Stephanie liking him made no sense to me.

Also, this was pretty tame, even by YA standards.  Granted, he refused to do anything with her, which might be why, but it made me feel like this was the YA version of Christian/Inspirational romance.  It was boring, and I felt like there was nothing between them.  It was pretty underwhelming, and it made me wish there were some sort of spark or something between them.  The pace was a little too slow, especially since I felt like there was really nothing between Stephanie and Jordan.  Maybe it was hard to get into because they don’t kiss for the first time until the book is almost over.  And then, out of the blue, he’s telling her mom that he wants to marry her one day.  It really came out of nowhere, and given that he didn’t seem interested in her for most of the book, it seemed out of place that he’d go from showing no interesting to marriage.

Stephanie’s best friend was also really confusing.  Sometimes, she seemed like an awesome friend, but there were other times where she seemed really shallow and self-absorbed.  Her mom barely made an appearance, and when we did see her mom, she seemed to freak out about stuff for no apparent reason.

And the formatting got really frustrating- there was a gap between freshman year Stephanie and senior year Stephanie, and there were quite a few blank pages in the gap.  Plus, the chapters were formatted a little weird, and it broke up the flow for me.

Other than that, I don’t have anything else I want to see.  I’m trying to come up with something else, but I can’t, so…

Blog Graphic- My Rating

1 star.  I couldn’t get into it, and the romance didn’t work for me at all.

Book Review: Pointe by Brandy Colbert

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Pointe CoverBook: Pointe by Brandy Colbert

Published April 2014 by Penguin|237 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Blog Graphic-What It's About

She’s eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction—and his abductor.

Donovan isn’t talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn’t do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she’s been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse.

Brandy Colbert dazzles in this heartbreaking yet hopeful debut novel about learning how to let go of even our most shameful secrets.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I have really mixed feelings about Pointe.  I’m not sure how I feel about Theo, and I felt like the book I read was not the book I went in expecting.

Let’s start with the fact that the title, cover and summary made me feel like we were getting a completely different story than the one we got.  Going off of the title and cover, it seemed like we were getting a book about a ballerina, but ballet wasn’t a huge part of the book.  And the summary made it seem like the abduction was a huge part of the story, when it wasn’t.

So, considering how Theo wants to be elite ballet dancer, she doesn’t seem to act like one.  She drinks and smokes cigarettes and weed, and for someone who’s supposedly aspiring to be Misty Copeland, she doesn’t seem to take care of herself very well.  She hangs out with people who are into things that would get in the way of her dreams of dancing professionally.  And she spent a lot of time whining about how she was late because she had to take the train, as she wasn’t able to drive to her ballet studio.  And she didn’t seem to live and breathe ballet the way that Tally does in This Much Is True or Gigi, June and Bette do in Tiny Pretty Things, or even Michaela DePrince in her memoir Taking Flight.  It felt very fake to me, like she didn’t really want as much as we were supposed to believe.

And while we see memories of Donovan and the man who abducted him…it didn’t really come up the way I thought it would.  It barely came up, and the book is really more about Theo trying to deal with all of the issues she has than the ballet or even the abduction of her former best friend.

I will say that anorexia and statutory rape are two very important topics in Pointe, so if that’s something that is triggering for you, keep that in mind if you pick this book up.

Even though Theo doesn’t seem to have really good eating habits, it was another thing that I felt was a thing that was mentioned but not important. I did feel for Theo, who, at 13, had sex with someone much, much older than her, and didn’t realize that she had been raped and that she was too young to realize that she didn’t truly consent.  That made me sad for her, but I still didn’t completely care for Theo.  Yes, she’s flawed and does some really stupid things but it made me like her less.  Which is fine, because I’m fine with unlikable characters, but in this case, such a flawed character worked against the book.  I think it’s because there are too many elements (for me) that don’t get the attention that they should have.

Actually, I’m not sure what Colbert was trying to get at with Theo.  She’s supposedly driven and an awesome ballerina, and yet we don’t see that at all. Someone who wants to be a professional ballet dancer…would they really act like Theo does in the book?  It really makes no sense to me.

It felt like Theo’s memories and the abduction weren’t really given much thought until the end of the book, and I don’t think we even meet Donovan. If we do, then it clearly was enough for me to actually remember if we see him at all.  Which is weird, considering he’s alive and that’s what makes Theo remember things.

Still, I liked how Theo dealt with her love interest at the end of the book- it was really different but in a good way, and it somehow seems to fit with Theo.  It is sad that it wasn’t until the last couple of chapters or so that the book got to me emotionally.  It made me wish the entire book was like that.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

2 stars.  Pointe was okay, but I felt like it was unclear what kind of story Colbert want to tell.  There were some elements that could have been really poignant and emotional, and it wasn’t there for me.  There were a lot of issues that didn’t really get the attention that they deserved.

Book Review: Tangled by Carolyn Mackler

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Tangled CoverBook: Tangled by Carolyn Mackler

Published December 2009 by HarperTeen|308 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Blog Graphic-What It's About

Paradise wasn’t supposed to suck.  

Not the state of being, but a resort in the Caribbean.

Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all there for different reasons, but at Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Paradise will change them all.

It will change Jena, whose first brush with romance takes her that much closer to having a life, and not just reading about those infinitely cooler and more exciting.

It will change Dakota, who needs the devastating truth about his past to make him realize that he doesn’t have to be a jerk just because people think he’s one.

It will change Skye, a heartbreakingly beautiful actress, who must come to terms with the fact that for once she has to stop playing a role or face the consequences.

And it will change Owen, who has never risked anything before and who will take the leap from his online life to a real one all because of a girl he met at Paradise…

From confused to confident and back again, one thing’s certain: Four months after it all begins, none of them will ever be the same.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I thought Tangled was okay!  It had a lot of potential to be really cute, but it wasn’t as cute or fun as I thought it would be.

I think a large part of it is how the story is told.  We get 4 teens, and they each get a section- each teen gets a month or so, before we move on to the next character.  The four stories don’t intersect as much as I though they would, and as far as the ending goes, I really expected all four of them to come together, and for all four stories to come together in some really interesting, big way.  And it didn’t, and I was disappointed with that, because what I thought was going to happen didn’t actually happen.  Not that I had something in mind, because I didn’t, but I was still expecting something to tie all of them together at the end.

I also thought there would be more time at Paradise, but instead we see what life is like for all of them after that trip.  Other than both girls meeting Dakota, and Jena finding a note that Skye left behind that sets up something in Skye’s section, I didn’t really get the point behind going to Paradise.  It almost didn’t matter that they all went, except it sort of does, and not in a way that adds much of anything to the story.

With the four characters getting their own story over the course of four months, you get some insight into each character, but it also broke up the flow of the story, and it made the book seem like four separate stories that randomly connect instead of one cohesive story.  It just made it hard to get into the book and even harder to get invested in any one character, especially since you basically get one character’s story and then you’re pretty much done with them because you’re not really going to see them again.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

2 stars.  It was okay, and I don’t really have strong enough feelings about it to care one way or another.

Book Review: If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan

Posted in Books, diverse books by

If You Could Be Mine CoverBook: If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan

Published July 2013 by Algonquin Books|165 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Blog Graphic-What It's About

In this stunning debut, a young Iranian American writer pulls back the curtain on one of the most hidden corners of a much-talked-about culture.

Seventeen-year-old Sahar has been in love with her best friend, Nasrin, since they were six. They’ve shared stolen kisses and romantic promises. But Iran is a dangerous place for two girls in love—Sahar and Nasrin could be beaten, imprisoned, even executed if their relationship came to light.

So they carry on in secret—until Nasrin’s parents announce that they’ve arranged for her marriage. Nasrin tries to persuade Sahar that they can go on as they have been, only now with new comforts provided by the decent, well-to-do doctor Nasrin will marry. But Sahar dreams of loving Nasrin exclusively—and openly.

Then Sahar discovers what seems like the perfect solution. In Iran, homosexuality may be a crime, but to be a man trapped in a woman’s body is seen as nature’s mistake, and sex reassignment is legal and accessible. As a man, Sahar could be the one to marry Nasrin. Sahar will never be able to love the one she wants, in the body she wants to be loved in, without risking her life. Is saving her love worth sacrificing her true self?

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I liked If You Could Be Mine!  What I liked the most was that it shows- really well- what it’s like to be gay in a country like Iran.  While you get a sense of what Iran is like, I also felt like we didn’t get the full picture of what it’s like to live in Iran.  Not that you can get the full picture with such a short book, but there was a lot of potential there.  Still, it did make me pause for a little bit and think about what what it’s like to be a young woman in a different country, and what it’s like to be a young woman who’s also lesbian, in a country where it’s illegal.  It’s not something I generally think about, much less for someone in a different country, and this book is one story of someone’s experience.

I will say, though, that I don’t really understand why Sahar is so in love with Nasrin.  Nasrin seemed pretty self-absorbed and selfish, and Sahar was so much more willing to do whatever it took to make it work.  It seemed like they were on two completely different pages, and it really seemed like Nasrin took Sahar for granted.  The facade surrounding Nasrin does crumble a little bit, and I understand why she acted the way she did, but I felt like Sahar deserved better.  I feel for both of them, being in a situation where they can’t act on what they want, but it was a lot harder for me to feel for Nasrin, particularly because we don’t see her side of the story.  I also felt no chemistry between the two girls, and I wish we had more chemistry, because I felt like I was being told why Sahar was willing to go to such great lengths, but not actually seeing it for myself.

And even though I felt for Sahar much more than Nasrin, I still don’t know how I feel about Sahar.  I want her to be happy, but I don’t know if she’ll be able to be fully happy in Iran.  I didn’t really get a sense of who Sahar was, other than someone who was more devoted to someone than she really should have been.  Something about Sahar was a little bit…hollow, and I wished she actually talked to Nasrin about what she wanted to do, instead of just doing things and hoping it would work out in time.

In the end, not much has stuck with me, and I think it could have been better (and longer!) but overall, I still think there’s enough there to recommend it because it is a perspective that doesn’t seem very common in YA- you’ll see LGBT characters, or people of color, but I haven’t come across many books (if any) where you see that intersection.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

3 stars.  I liked If You Could Be Mine, but I didn’t care for Nasrin, and the relationship that she had with Sahar seemed really one-sided.