high school – Peaceful Reader

29 days of book love

Boy meets Boy by David Levithan is a book I won on a blog giveaway years ago in the early days of this blog. I didn’t know who Levithan was but the book had an interesting premise. The topsy turvy world that Levithan creates is one that reminds of the wild L.A. world of Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block. They both are about worlds that don’t exist (yet).

This short novel won my book love for Paul’s story, the truth mixed in with so much good humor, and this quote:

“I’ve always known I was gay, but it wasn’t confirmed until I was in kindergarten.
It was my teacher who said so. It was right there on my kindergarten report card: Paul is definitely gay and has very good sense of self.
I saw it on her desk one day before naptime. And I have to admit: I might not have realized I was different if Mrs. Benchly hadn’t pointed it out. I mean, I was five years old. I just assumed boys were attracted to other boys. Why else would they spend all of their time together, playing on teams, and making fun of the girls? I assumed it was because we all liked each other. I was still unclear how girls fit into the picture, but I thought I knew the boy thing A-OK….”

Which leads to this conversation with his teacher…

“Am I definitely gay?”
Mrs. Benchly looked me over and nodded.
“What’s gay?” I asked.
“It’s when a boy likes other boys,” she explained.
I pointed over to the painting corner, where Greg Easton was wrestling on the ground with Ted Halpern.
“Is Greg gay?” I asked.
“No.” Mrs. Benchly answered. “At least not yet.”
Interesting. I found it all very interesting.
Mrs. Benchly explained a little more to me-the whole boys-liking girls thing. I can’t say I understood. Mrs. Benchly asked me if I’d noticed that marriages were mostly made up of men and women. I had never really thought of marriages as things that involved liking. I had just assumed this man-woman arrangement was yet another adult quirk, like flossing. Now Mrs. Benchly was telling me something much bigger. Some sort of global conspiracy.
“But that’s not how I feel,” I protested. My attention was a little distracted because Ted was now pulling up Greg Easton’s shirt, and that was kind of cool. “How I feel is what’s right…right?”
“For you, yes,” Mrs. Benchly told me. “What you feel is absolutely right for you. Always remember that.”

And that last line is golden. Oh how I wish we truly had conversations with students like this. Although odd that Mrs. Benchly openly points out Paul’s sexuality via his report card but his sense of self worth-yes! It’s funny and filled with very real characters.

My copy has this lovely inscription:

Debut author Amanda Maciel writes scary high school portrayal…

School can be a frightening place as students of any age try to fit in with an ever changing norm. Amanda Maciel does an amazing job of making this high school story very real. I don’t teach in a high school and my hope is that it isn’t this bad but I have a feeling I could be wrong…

Emma Putnam, a new student, who somehow gets on the wrong side of Brielle and subsequently her followers, Sara, Noelle and a few male characters. Emma is pegged as a slut as she tries to make her way through every day with mean people surrounding her.

They push her around physically and emotionally using FB and Twitter. They taunt her every single time they see her. They put fake Valentine’s Day cutouts on her lawn. They create a vicious FB page for her. And while Emma feels like she has a few friends they often turn on her if Brielle is near. Noone wants to go against Brielle. The line is so thin…it’s much easier to be a bystander or even worse join right in so Brielle might like you more. Why do girls allow a mean queen bee take control like this?

I would love to see this book told again through Emma’s side. She’s human and makes a few mistakes along the way which is just what gives Sara justification to keep taunting her. It is Sara that we follow through alternating monthly chapters of before and after Emma’s suicide. Eventaully she understands how her (and Brielle’s) behavior adversely effected Emma; enough for Emma to lose any hope.

This was hard to read, it hurt my heart, and I so wanted to step in and alternately “shake” each character. Words are what hurt and until we really help kids get this bullying will remain an issue.

How can we teach children at the elementary level to respect each other and spread peace and joy instead of nasty barbs.

Quote:

Sara’s thoughts:

I try to look away, but it’s like my head is stuck. She and Beth are talking in low voices, and Emma looks like she’s been crying or something. She always looks that way-when she’s not flirting with some guy or whatever. Or even when she is, sometimes. She’s this permanent bruise, always getting her feelings hurt, always injured. Everyone at school knows she sees a therapist, and I wonder why they haven’t just put her on antidepressants already. Or ones that actually work. (113)

That’s just how Brielle was. That’s what no one gets, I think-she would tease you even if she did like you. Especially if she liked you. And then if someone was mean to her, or to one of her friends, she’d turn that teasing on to them. It would be a lot less nice, of course. It was pretty tough sometimes. But-and suddenly I know this, standing here with Carmichael, in the middle of passing period, in the middle of nowhere-that’s her survival instinct. That’s just how she deals. (237)

Excellent, well-crafted characters mixed with a very current and real crisis made for a strong story and from a debut author! I’m interested in whatever she writes next. While we are waiting this interview with Amanda is worth it!

Interesting YA titles

I finished both of these in September and what ties them together is love and the power of acceptance; something most humans desire. One uses that power and the other makes it into a curable disease.

The List by Siobhan Vivian:

Filled with the craziness of high school it brought back memories of how BAD it can be. I thought it said a lot though for all that high school student’s experience-being popular is weird and being unpopular is just as weird. If only all high school students could learn to be themselves; a very difficult concept because most teens have yet to truly find themselves as it often takes years to figure it all out.

Mount Washington H.S. has this tradition of a published list plastered all over the walls right before homecoming. The list shares the prettiest and the ugliest female student in each class. At any level it is difficult to appear on either side of the list; yet both sides display negative behavior because they are on the list.

Siobhan Vivian relays the stories of all eight young women affected by the list and we learn just how being a member of this small group changes them. In order to ignore the list you’d have to be a very mighty girl! I was not a brave soul in high school and would have found it heart-breaking to be even mentioned. Even the young women chosen for the pretties side struggle with how to keep up with the image they think every one expects. My first thoughts were that the list must be written by a guy or a group of guys. The ending left me shaking my head and praying for a second women’s movement!

A quote:

She lifts her chin a few degrees. ‘I’ve decided not to take a shower for a whole week.’

‘For real?’

‘Yup,’ she says, making the p pop. ‘I’m not showering, I’m not brushing my teeth, putting on deodorant, anything. I’m wearing these same clothes, not just the shirt, but the jeans, the socks, the underwear, the bra. My last shower was on Sunday night, before I went over to your house.’ She folds her arms. ‘I won’t participate in any kind of hygiene until Saturday night.’ It feels good to say her plan out loud. Now there can be no backing out.

‘What’s on Saturday night?’

‘The homecoming dance.’ It sounds so utterly ridiculous, but she keeps a straight face. ‘I’m going as smelly and disgusting as I can possibly make myself, dressed in these clothes.’

Milo laughs and laughs, but when Sarah doesn’t join, he stops. “Wait. You’re not serious.’

‘I am.’

‘Why are you letting that stupid list get to you? You hate the girls at this school, obviously for good reason. And now you want to show up at their dumb dance? This isn’t like you at all.’ (101)

Even the young women chosen for the pretties side struggle with how to keep up with the image they think every one expects. The ending left me baffled and praying for a second women’s movement!

Delirium by Lauren Oliver (2011):

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This is a glorious look at a future world where love has been deemed a disease. Can you imagine? They make a good case for why love could be perceived as a sickness. Lena is an orphan living in her aunt’s household waiting for her treatment that will prevent her from getting the disease. Many good plans fail to work out though and Lena meets someone that makes her feel all the effects of love which confuses her. Does she feel this way because she is now sick or are the people protecting her lying to her? As love often does her life becomes complicated as she balances her quiet life at home with her new desire to break the rules and see Alex as much as she can.

I enjoyed the relationship between Lena and her best friend Hana. They are good to each other but have a few struggles and conflicts throughout the story but in the end they find they can count on each other.

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I was named after Mary Magdalene, who was nearly killed from love: “So infected with deliria and in violation of the pacts of society, she fell in love with men who would not have her or could not keep her.” (Book of Lamentations, Mary 13:1).

We learned all about it in Biblical Science. First there was John, then Matthew, then Jeremiah and Peter and Judas, and many other nameless men in-between.

Her last love, they say, was the greatest: a man named Joseph, a bachelor all of his life, who found her on the street, bruised and broken and half-crazy from deliria. There’s some debate about what kind of man Joseph was-whether he was righteous or not, whether he ever succumbed to the disease-but in any case, he took good care of her. He nursed her to health and tried to bring her peace. (87-88)

I enjoyed how Oliver twisted our own biblical stories to create and re-enforce this new history and makes a convincing argument against love.

Both books were borrowed from my local library.

I’m reading Maggie’s Stiefvater’s sequel to The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, and love it. I downloaded it to my kindle to encourage myself to finish a book on this device. I love using it as a mini-computer and as a game device but have yet to finish a book on it. Dream Thieves will be my first and I’m proud to say I’m half way through or in Kindle-speak 48%.

Read Trinkets by Kirsten Smith

Trinkets

Kirsten Smith

March, 2013

Trinkets was a fast easy read perfect for middle school through high school students. I loved the alternating characters between the three girls all from different backgrounds but quite similar in their attitudes. All three want something different, something bigger than what is happening in their life right now as high school students. They try to create their own thrill by shoplifting at the mall. Serious shoplifting-not just a tube of lipstick from the drugstore-but designer dresses, jewelry, gadgets, and books.

There’s Elodie who writes like a poet and feels like she doesn’t belong. Maureen who’s just Moe who lost both her parents in a car crash leaving her and her brother to live with their aunt. She teeters on the fringe with the burnouts but she is far from burned out. Tabitha has everything that comes with money; friends, buying power, and a handsome boyfriend but she feels alone almost always. All three, busted
separately for shoplifting, end up in a Shoplifters Anonymous program to heal themselves and end up finding each other. While this is a wonderful book about friendship and high school and could be just another book about how hard it is to be in school with all the set cliques this book sets itself apart through its unique characters and ability to sound real and right on. We don’t want anyone to go out a steal just to make a friend but this book speaks volumes on how important it is to be yourself, to step away from the bullies, the bitches, the drama queens to stand alone until you rise to the top.

It’s a hard task to do but Elodie, Tabitha, and Moe learn that it is better to have one (or two) good friends than to have a roomful of people who know your name. Told in alternating chapters between all three young women you get an excellent feel for each one’s motivation. This would make a great movie if they did it well which doesn’t come as a surprise since the author has written a few screenplays, including one of my favorite Heath Ledger movies, 10 Things I hate about you.

A quote from Moe:

April 8

Aunt B says to not judge a book by the cover, but I guess everybody does. Elodie was surprised when I told her I’d already read Broken Soup. Tabitha said she hadn’t read it, so Elodie gave her the copy. Hanging out at the Roxy with them was more fun than listening to Alex lay out a plan to TP some nerd’s house, but it wasn’t like super buddy-buddy or anything. Obviously, I didn’t tell them about Noah or even that I like to read while taking a bath. It’s none of their business. I guess if I were a book, my cover would be different from what’s on the inside too. (104)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan to keep it on my shelf for Groovy Girl to read in a few years. She knows all about standing outside the circle trying to feel confident.

My review copy from Little, Brown & Co in no way altered my high opinion of this title. Thank you to Zoe for my review copy. s

I read the best book over the weekend…

Don’t you love a sentence that begins that way? I’ve been hastily doing all I can for the upcoming election and did some canvassing this weekend for Organizing for America. I’m very ready for Tuesday to come and go as I’m exhausted from this campaign. In between family events and chatting up my favorite president to local residents I actually did read the best book!

What Happens Next (October, 2012) by debut author Colleen Clayton took my breath away with how real and wonderful the story was. Cassidy Murphy, a voluptuous cheerleader, heads off on a school ski club excursion with her two best friends. She’s never skied before and ends up on the bunny slope for the first day while her more experienced friends, Paige and Kirsten, head to the black diamonds remorsefully leaving Cassidy behind. She’s determined to better her skiing skills and while making attempt after attempt meets a hunky older guy, Dax, on the chair lift. Because of her over-sized chest and shapely figure she’s had little experience with men and is an easy target for the suave Dax who wins her over with a few well placed compliments and some coy memory tricks. He asks her to a party after they’ve spent the day flirting and laughing as they ski down the easier slopes. She knows she can’t really accept the invite as it would be breaking curfew for the trip and she’s pretty sure Paige and Kirsten won’t help her but she tries to get them to go along with her party plan anyway. They turn her down and yes, she sneaks out because this cute boy was nice to her. Cue the ominous music.

We get inside Dax’s condo where there is no party but he does invite her into “his parlor” to watch a movie. We leave them laughing together and then speed zip to Cassidy waking up in a bedroom by herself, feeling sick like a hangover. She walks back to the condo where she is bombarded with her friends and the chaperone’s disappointment. Her brain jiggles with worry about the events of the previous night but she can’t quite say exactly what happened but her life has altered, tipped a little, keeping her mentally and physically off balance. Her grades suffer, her friends disappear. She gets kicked off the cheer leading team, drops out of one class only to be assigned to the AV room as an aide which is where she meets Corey Livingston. He turns out to be the perfect slacker dude; someone who is easy to talk to, doesn’t ask a lot of questions and has secrets himself. I could have used a Corey Livingston dream date while I was in high school.

Random quote:

I don’t know how it happens. It just does. I search and search for clues to tell me what happened, where he is, who else he has done this to. I find nothing but inner sickness. I get so torn up and panic-stricken that I have to slam my laptop shut and raise my window, stick my head out into the cold night, and try not to scream. I don’t know what to do with it, this lack of peace, this need to know. I want it to go away but it won’t.
Every night it comes back.
Every night I am searching. (90)

There is a hint of fairy tale to me with Dax’s yellow eyes and Sid’s long red locks but this book definitely tells a real life story of what many young women go through as they evaluate themselves harshly, trying to live up to false images of the perfect women while they steer their way through uncertain relationships with men. It’s not that every strange man on the ski slope is going to be a Dax Windsor but they are out there. Luckily Cassidy meets Corey who likes her for who she is which is what all young women deserve.

Just like Ask the Passengers by A.S. King I will recommend this to our high school teacher-librarians as a must purchase! Review copy received from Zoe at Little, Brown, and Company. In no way did this influence my review as the book stands on its on merit.

*Just as a warning this book does have a ton of swearing.

Soaring with Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

Ask the Passengers

A.S. King

October, 2013

I started my September ARC (advanced reader’s copy) challenge with a bang! This book seriously blew me away with how wonderfully-written it was. Carrying just enough sarcasm, wit,and angst mixed with profound love; it made me smile, laugh, shake my head, and cry in rapid secession, it gave me such HOPE!

Ask the passengers is Astrid Jones’ story. She’s a high school student in a small town where her parents have settled her after a major move from New York City. Her parents craved the hometown experience without realizing the affect it would have on their two young girls; Astrid and Ellis. Astrid feels she’s never quite fit in to this small-town, small-minded community. Ellis, on the other hand, seems to have made a life with the popular kids. In a way each member of the Jones’ family struggles with new identity after the move and they’ve gotten stuck in crisis mode. Eventually they come to realize it is just another way to not accept themselves. A.S. King weaves this drama around this family’s journey back to each other.

But first the gossip. Lots of gossip. Small towns are never as idyllic as they seem. Astrid’s family feels rocky and she takes her life cues from this. She’s busy keeping a major secret for her neighbor and best friend, Kristina, and her boyfriend, Justin. They fool everyone into thinking they are the perfect couple-prom couple perfect. But when Kristina and Justin go out on their cute weekly Friday double dates they actually are dating the other person. Yep. Kristina and Donna, and Justin and Chad have it all worked out. Nicely. Modern set up. Astrid keeps their secret. See how small towns are not what they seem to be…

What Kristina doesn’t know is that Astrid has her own secrets and she’s not ready to share at all. Instead she sends her love out to passing airplanes. Better to give it away than store it up or throw it away.

“So I send my love, and I ask the passengers: Where are you going? Can I come with you? I could finally feel at home.” (98)

When she talks to the plane passengers we get a message back, showing us the profound effect an outpouring of positive emotion can have. So while Astrid misses the big city idea and what that represents the plane people are having their own problems thousands of feet above her. And the small town people might catch her off-guard; people are filled with surprises as she discovers along her journey. Through her narration we hear odd angles like her humorous thought-process of small town gossip:

“They say: I bet her and that Justin Lampley will have some damn pretty kids. They say: I can’t figure out why she hangs out with that weird neighbor girl.That’s me. (Astrid)” (4)

The proverbial “they” is always a fear; whether in her mind or truthfully being told it’s hard to bear the fact that in small towns people are watching your every move. And one night the double daters and Astrid are caught in their secret world, busted, and tossed back to their families. Do they recover from stepping outside the small-town boundaries? Maybe. Yes. No. Out of negative we know that good often occurs and this book has so much good mixed in with everything. I could read it all over again!

I let a friend borrow it today-she sent praises within the hour! This book deserves much attention as a story filled with love, redemption, and what it means to be yourself where ever you live. I’m curious about A.S. King’s other titles-what wonderful messages might be revealed within their covers.

ARC received from Little, Brown, and Company. Thank you Zoe!

The Lions of Little Rock

Our family had the pleasure of living in North Little Rock for 3 years. I met my wonderful friend, V, there and experienced Southern life for a short period. One of my favorite first memories was trick-or-treating in flip flops with my children. Growing up in Minnesota I’d spent many a Halloween bundled in winter coats and boots.

In 2007 the Little Rock Nine celebrated their 50th anniversary but before that Commemorative Civil Rights stamps were released and several events occurred that we attended, including a movie premier with Minnijean Brown Trickey. My husband made it to the dedication of these striking statues (above photo) on the capital grounds commemorating their journey. Anytime we walked to see these statues I always felt an overwhelming sense of fear for what these mere teenagers faced everyday.

The Lions of Little Rock (2012) takes place the year after that difficult year of integration at Central High School, when emotions were just as high. Integration did not go as planned; neither side had won leaving both sides bitter. Many of the high schools closed instead of withstanding another attempt at forced integration.

Synopsis from Penguin:

Two girls separated by race form an unbreakable bond during the tumultuous integration of Little Rock schools in 1958 Twelve-year-old Marlee doesn’t have many friends until she meets Liz, the new girl at school. Liz is bold and brave, and always knows the right thing to say, especially to Sally, the resident mean girl. Liz even helps Marlee overcome her greatest fear – speaking, which Marlee never does outside her family.

But then Liz is gone, replaced by the rumor that she was a Negro girl passing as white. But Marlee decides that doesn’t matter. Liz is her best friend. And to stay friends, Marlee and Liz are willing to take on integration and the dangers their friendship could bring to both their families.

A Halloween quote:

“Howdy , cowpoke!”
I turned and saw a cowgirl with a leather skirt, chaps, a fringed jacket, hat and bandanna over her face. Beside her stood a little kid dressed as a horse, with a full mask over his head.
“Wow,” I said. I recognized Liz’s voice, even if I couldn’t see her face. “You look great!”
“Granny can sew,” she said. “Too bad every day isn’t Halloween. We could go anywhere we wanted.”
“You’re not supposed to talk to your white friend,” said Tommy.
“Shhh,” said Liz. “Horses don’t talk. Besides, I told you I’d give you half my candy.” (116-117)

The friendship between Liz and Marlee springs up naturally at school and the two enjoy each other’s company, fitting together like two parts of a puzzle. Through their eyes integration is an easy choice but the world is filled with haters and Liz and Marlee run into many of them. After being banned by both families to meet they conspire to see each other anyway at the zoo. It’s tough in the face of adversity to stick to each other but they do the best they can under their complicated circumstances.

I appreciated feeling at home in the Little Rock setting, could picture the zoo, Philander Smith College, and the Central High School area. The Lions of Little Rock is Kristin Levine’s second historical fiction novel about race. Her first book, The Best Bad Luck I’ve Ever Had is about the friendship between Harry and Emma in Alabama.

Kristin Levine grew up in the South and now makes her home on the East Coast. The Fourth Musketeer has a wonderful interview with Levine and Janssen’s review is worth reading at Everyday Reading.

How To Buy A Love Of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson

I can’t imagine not having a book in my hand for most of my life. Even in my wild 20’s I read during parties and in my 30’s I read between waitressing and bartending shifts. I’ve never wavered in my love for books and all they hold so it was interesting to have my handsome husband give me this book for a birthday gift.

Synopsis:

When Carley Wells is asked by her H.S. English teacher what her favorite book is, she answers: “Never met one I liked.” Her parents are both horrified when the English teacher passes this information to them and so begins her parents quest to bring literature to Carley. Because they have a ton of money her parents decide to hire a writer who will help Carley create a work of fiction. Through the hired author and Carley’s eyes we see this incredible life of money, boredom, parental error and self-loathing.

My Thoughts:

Carley is an overweight young woman who is in love with her best friend Hunter. Hunter suffers from major depression and chooses to drown his feelings in Vicodin and alcohol. Hunter and Carley have a somewhat toxic friendship as they rely on each other, trying to hide their own negative feelings.

The parents of each of these teenagers is a terrible parental example. Hunter’s mother has a thing for Jackie O and spends more time watching clips of Jackie’s tour of the White House than she does listening to her son. Carley’s mom wants her to be thin and reminds her of it every day. Carley’s dad had a few good qualities until its revealed that he’s having an affair. They seem to think throwing money at each problem is the best solution. It doesn’t work. Carley’s character grows throughout the story and this makes the journey very worthwhile. Does she get a love of reading? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

A sample:

Carley’s father had bought her Choose Your Own Adventures when she was a kid, mazelike books that begin with you waking up places like the planet Zantor and having to make choices like whether to trust a family of six-headed purple Zantorians who tell you to follow them home to safety before sundown when the planet’s carnivorous plants will wake up. Only problem is that the Zantorians, with their six mouths of fangs, are a little vague about what they themselves eat. If you take the Zantorians up on their offer to “have you over for dinner,” turn to page four. If you decide to take your chances tiptoeing through the snapping tulips, turn to page ten. The only thing Carley ever liked about them was working backward from the end, taking the forks in reverse to figure out how to end up on a spaceship bound for home. (39)

Here is Tanya Egan Gibson’s website and her twitter link.
I am interested to see what her next book might be like.

p.s. I read this book way back in August-one of these cold Fall days my reviews will catch up with what I’m reading now.

Before I fall by Lauren Oliver

I’m doing my best to catch up some YA reading this summer. People talk about these books all year long and I tend to save them for summer. This book was on my to-read mental list and while we were in DC we stopped by my husband’s old neighborhood, Adams Morgan. I went right to the lovely little used bookstore-the name of which escapes me-but a little magic happened and I found Before I Fall on a shelf with a $6 price tag inside. It was a sign.

I pushed back my major beach read, A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand, and started reading, right after we visited the National Zoo, which by the way was missing most of its animals the day we visited. Disappointing. It was hot.

Before I Fall

Lauren Oliver

470 pages

2010

Samantha Kingston has it all; the world’s most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High-from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. (inside front cover)

It sounds like quite the life but it took only a few pages into the book to realize Sam leads a crazy life-one that was a little scary for me; a mom of a young girl that will one day soon be a teen. Sam’s a mean girl-she wasn’t always but became one in order to hang with Lindsay and be well, popular. As the reader you know from the beginning of the book that Sam is going to die in a car crash after a party but it gets snagged up in time and she relives that day seven different times, trying to get it right…or at least a little better.

While the characters and their ability to be visciously mean to other people scared me I did enjoy getting to know the characters and the degree to which Sam Kingston is allowed to grow into a more thoughtful person. It’s as if she goes through seven stages of Dante’s Hell in order to get to heaven. While she’s learning we get a peek into what makes the other characters, like Lindsay, mean.

It’s good to know, according to Lauren Oliver, that bullies are basically insecure and choose to lash out due to their own lack of self-esteem. Mentally it is good to know this but it doesn’t help when you are the one made to feel like crap everyday of high school because some other h.s. student has decided to thrash on you. As Sam figures out how to make things better she notices the intricate threads that bind us all together. Beautiful lesson for teens to learn.

The writing is eloquent with lots of gentl emetaphorical comparisons. I loved Kent McFuller-he was a wonderfully written cool-geek! This is a snippet of conversation between Kent and Sam:

…”You remember my old house on Terrace Place, right?” The smile is back. It’s true: his eyes are exactly the color of grass. “You used to hang out in the kitchen and steal all the good cookies. And I chased you around these huge maple trees in the front yard. Remember?”
As soon as he mentions the maple trees a memory rises up, expanding, like something breaking the surface of water and rippling outward. We were sitting in this little space in between two enormous roots that curved out of the ground.like animal spines. (142)

This book should be read by parents as much as its intended young adult audience. There is a ton of drinking, smoking and sex in the book-I know it happens in high school but for this group of friends it was all part of their scene. As a mom all I could think was “please don’t let my child act this way…”

Other thoughts on Before I Fall…

The Brain Lair
Slightly Bookish…she even has a playlist set up for this book.
Fate is Kind Book Review

Lauren Oliver’s website.

Indie Bookstore

Bitter End

by Jennifer Brown

(May, 2011)

354 pages

Goodreads Summary:

When Alex falls for the charming new boy at school, Cole, a handsome, funny, sports star who adores her, she can’t believe she’s finally found her soul mate-someone who truly understands her and loves her for who she really is.

At first, Alex is blissfully happy. Sure, Cole seems a little jealous of her relationship with her best friends, Zack and Bethany, but what guy would want his girlfriend spending all of her time with another boy? But as the months pass, Alex can no longer ignore Cole’s small put-downs, pinches, or increasingly violent threats. As Alex struggles to come to terms with the sweet boyfriend she fell in love with and the boyfriend whose “love” she no longer recognizes, she is forced to choose – between her “true love” and herself.

My Thoughts:

The story is very honestly told from Alex’s point-of-view as she experiences the overwhelmingly new feelings of falling in love. I was drawn into the story because I liked Alex’s character-she’s thoughtful, she’s a poet, she’s nice to her friends and a hard-worker and I felt terrible as she got pulled further into this destructive relationship, which ultimately alters her original redeeming qualities.

Even though I knew from the blurb that this was about an abusive relationship it still took me by surprise, which is how it happens in real life. (I know a little from personal experience-it is never pretty and they never get better. ) Alex is very excited when Cole notices her, asks to read her poetry and flirts with her. The middle of the story is filled with her anxiousness and I cheered when she started listening to others. Her family annoyed me, especially her dad, because they weren’t paying attention. Her dad has had his head buried since mom took off years earlier. Georgia, Alex’s boss at The Bread Bowl, is the one who seems to understand on a deeper level what Alex is experiencing. Her friends want to help, try to help but keep losing out in the conversation. It becomes an “us” or “him” game that has no good ending.
I’ll admit it. I cried. I cried. I cried.

It’s very well-written and the author’s end note sums up just how she knows so much about abusive relationships…and it isn’t how you think but it gave the book even more credence.

If you have the chance, take time to read Jennifer Brown’s Bitter End, it is worth it!

Read Janssen’s review of Hate List -makes me want to read it, even though it will be emotional as well.

I received my advanced reader’s copy from the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, but this did not reflect in anyway on my review. I truly loved it and finished it in two days because I couldn’t put it down. I look forward to other books by this new author.