Dead Girl's Society by Michelle Krys
On Sale November 8, 2016 by Delacorte Press
Rating: ★★★
"The Society. Weird. Sounds like spam, but you know what they say: life is short, read spam."
Hope is facing a shorter, more sheltered life than most: she has cystic fibrosis and a mother who keeps her trapped inside the house. The only person she has outside contact with is her best friend, Ethan, who is also the object of her crush (go figure). So when "the society" offers her a bit of excitement and a chance to break out of her narrow mold, the email invitation to join the "games" proves too tempting to pass up. Hope finds herself in a twisted competition with a handful of other girls from her old school (when her mom used to let her go to school, that is). The winner gets a huge cash prize, but losers will be severely punished. At first, the society almost seems like a blessing. Hope is being raised by a single mother working a cashier job, and the medicines she needs do not come cheap. But as the consequences mount, Hope starts to wonder why the society is after her and will do anything to quit the game.
It was hard for me to take this book seriously. A couple of teens playing games set up by a "mysterious society" with "consequences"-- I was just at the very edge of my seat. So when real, dark stuff starts happening to the characters, I was kind of thrown for a loop. Where did that come from? This book goes from 0 to deadly serious very quickly, and I just didn't find it believable-- any of it. I also thought Ethan could have been eliminated from the book entirely. His character adds little to the story beyond being Hope's love interest, and that proved a pretty average and expected subplot. A teen girl whose best friend happens to be a hot, understanding guy that she happens to be in love with-- is that well not dry yet? I would describe this book as: good, not great, it has it's fun moments and logic does not apply.
Faithful by Alice Hoffman
On Sale November 1, 2016 by Simon & Schuster
Rating: ★★★
Shelby is determined to pay a lifetime of penance. When she's seventeen, she's involved in a one-vehicle crash that leaves her best friend in a vegetative state and herself in psych ward. Shelby is convinced the accident is actually her crime, and she's volunteered to serve as the warden to her own emotional prison. Instead of going to college, she shaves her head, festers in her parents' basement, only making human contact with her weed supplier.
I thought the beginning to Faithful was really interesting. A young woman in pain, full of self-loathing and self-abuse. There were so many directions this story could have gone... but I don't think it went much of anywhere.
Things just happen to Shelby. Good things. Even though she doesn't want them, doesn't think she deserves them, and does nothing to earn them. First, her aforementioned pot dealer turns into a stable adult and falls in love with her, and they move to NYC. She gets a job at a pet store-- happy to stock shelves and avoid both customers and co-workers-- and is promoted to manager because. Then she starts going to college, surprises herself that it just all comes so naturally to her, and the state of New York throws money at her for her education. She's also the most wonderful babysitter in the world and can fix an entire family with her reluctant awesomeness. She also rescues (steals) pets all over the city because she loves animals so much and knows what is best for them.Shelby, in her way, is a total Mary Sue. She's so determined to self-destruct, and yet just so special that all the forces of the universe conspire to keep her alive and give her a happy ending. All while she wallows in her own, endless pool of self-pity.There are elements of magical realism here, but they play a minor role in the book and felt a bit out of place with the rest of the book. Romance played a much larger role, but, in the end, I only became convinced that Shelby makes horrible choices when it comes to men.Shelby didn't grow enough for me as a character, especially considering the timeline of this book spans over a decade. It's hard for me to knock this book below 2.5 stars, because it is well written, decently paced, and many of the supporting characters possess the charisma Shelby lacks. And I did enjoy the relationship between Shelby and her mother. Ultimately, though, Faithful fell flat for me.
The Best Possible Answer, by E. Katherine Kottaras
On Sale November 1, 2016 by St. Martin's Griffin
Rating: ★★★
So this is the book I expected: an over-stressed, over-worked, high school perfectionist with trust issues learns to open up to "Mr. Right" and live in the moment.That's not the book I got. This book is not a typical YA romance. In fact, it's not really a romance at all.This is a book about struggling to keep things together when your life is falling spectacularly apart.Viviana has real issues. It goes deeper than the humiliation she feels from her first love spreading around her nude selfies in retaliation for their break up. This incident puts her in the hospital with a severe case of anxiety. Viviana's parents put enormous pressure on her to get into an elite college, and her father is livid that the nude pics might bar her from Stanford (how?). In fact, her father is so disappointed he's moved out of the home and gone off to Singapore. If that weren't enough pain, Viviana also struggles to repair her relationship with her mother. Then she learns the truth about her father, and it's something that would land even the most well-adjusted person into a lifetime of therapy. With all this going on, she learns her best friend, Sammie, is moving away, and they spend much of their last summer together fighting over a boy. Then there's a mentally ill professor living in their apartment complex who somehow is going to teach a bunch of teens some important life lessons (sigh).I think this book tries to do too much. From the romance drama, to the family drama, to the best friend drama, to the sister drama... this book feels like a collage. A bunch of plot bits slapped together with glue into something that's not altogether horrible to look at but is undeniably cluttered. Each chapter starts with headers about studying for SATs, entrance essays to college, ect.-- I skipped past those.Something needed to give with this book. Removing one or more of the story elements and going further into depth with the remaining could have made this a much better novel, IMO.
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Published August 9, 2016 by William Morrow
Rating: ★★★
"I type my password: IHATEJOSHUA4EV@. My previous passwords have all been variations on how much I hate Joshua. For ever."
Lucy Hutton hates Joshua Templeton with every fiber of her being. In fact, these days, hating him is about all she's doing with her life. Ever since the personable publishing house she works for merged with a heartless, number crunching competitor, Lucy spends countless hours at work. She lost her best friend in the merger, and her super supportive parents live hours away. Now, she and her nemesis are up for the same promotion, and the loser has to resign. Will she lose her job, too?
I liked this book well enough, but I was really expecting it to be more fun (and funny) than it was. The bit about the passwords is the only genuine laugh I had the entire book. It starts off with a misstep, going into the business merger instead of the meat of Lucy's war with Joshua. The two don't seem to antagonize each other all that much. If you're expecting Jim/Dwight levels of office shenanigans, you'll be disappointed.
The characters didn't seem consistent to me. As the story progresses, Lucy starts having "freak outs" that didn't plague her earlier in the book. Joshua gets more socially awkward and closed off. The romance just didn't work for me. I didn't buy the characters together.
I'm seeing it more and more in chick-lit type books, but the dialogue tagging was at times incorrectly done and confusing. How does this keep getting past editors?
Overall impressions: Devoted chick-lit fans will find a lot to like in this book, but other audiences might want to think twice.
Only Daughter by Anna Snoekstra
On Sale September 20, 2016 by Mira
Rating: ★★★
She's been caught shoplifting food. She's hungry, homeless, dirty, and on the run. But she has a way out. She happens to look identical to a teen girl who went missing a decade earlier, Rebecca Winter. She assumes Rebecca's identity, using it as a get-out-of-jail-free card. Little does she know her new life as Bec Winter is its own kind of prison. Before she knows it, she's wrapped up in the mystery of her alter ego's disappearance, and it looks like the killer might be after her.
This story is told from the perspective of both the real and the impostor Bec (readers never learn her name). I didn't connect with either girl. The narrator, fake Bec, is a flat, uninspiring character who lacks human emotions. I give this book 5 stars for concept, but the execution is choppy, as is the writing. Loose ends were left hanging. The twists and turns were kind of ho-hum for me-- and I closed the book feeling a bit bored. This isn't a bad debut novel, but it didn't quite live up to its potential.
Mischling by Affinity Konar
Published September 6, 2016 by Lee Boudreaux Books
Rating: ★★★
"Stasha would take the funny, the future, the bad. I would take the sad, the past, the good."
Identical twins Pearl and Stasha arrived at Auschwitz as two halves of one whole. Pearl, the eldest, was sweet and musical, Stasha fearless and imaginative. Fresh off the transport train, the pair catch the eye of the notorious "doctor" Josef Mengele, who favors twins as subjects for his gruesome medical and genetic experiments. At Auschwitz, being a double can be a good thing. It can keep you alive for another day. But it's not only death that can separate twins forever in Mengele's Zoo. The so-called Angel of Death had the ability to take two girls who are one and cleave them apart for good. It's something the girls fear almost as much as the gas chamber.
Half of this book is set in Auschwitz, and half in the chaotic aftermath of the camp's liberation. It's written largely in thick, overworked prose that obscures moments of tension and genuine emotion. I never got a sense of any of the characters and found all but Stasha remarkably flat. Lyrical prose somehow hides the horrors of Auschwitz. This book tells the story of the torture of children by one of the most sadistic psychopaths in history, but manages to do so in a distant, dispassionate fashion. I haven't read a Holocaust book that's provoked less of an emotional reaction from me. I was disappointed in the ending, and details throughout seemed a bit historically... bendable. But mostly this book just failed to capture my attention.
Karolina's Twins by Ronald H. Balson
On Sale September 6, 2016
Published by St. Martin's Press
Rating: ★★★
In 1943 in the Chrzanow, Poland ghetto, Karolina, a young Jewish woman, gives birth to twins with help of her best friend, Lena. Before being transferred to a slave labor camp, Karolina makes one, desperate last ditch attempt to save her babies. Seventy years later, Lena is a Holocaust survivor and living in Chicago. She decides it's time to keep her promise to Karolina to find the twins and enlists a lawyer/PI team to help her.
The structure of this book was maddening. It can best be summed up as: "hey, did I ever tell you my life's story?" As such, the book is almost entirely in dialogue. But the dialogue isn't very good. At times, it feels more like characters reciting pages out of a history textbook than genuine conversation. The writing in this book is flat, uninspiring, and at times reminded me of a cable tv cop show.
"Well, Arthur, I don't know too much about head-spinning, but I think you're going to find out that Ms. Lockhart's really good at ass-kickin'."
I do think there has to be a certain amount of leeway given to historical fiction in terms of accuracy and I get the sense that this author did his research. But some parts of this book are so preposterous. The story of what happens to the twins? No, nope, sorry, no way. A judge throwing a pregnant woman into jail for refusing to break privilege? Please. The parts of the story that resonated with me did so because of the history. By contrast, the parts that were the author's creation left me cold. Basically, I find WW2 interesting enough to give this book 3-stars.
God, I hate feeling left out. Have you ever read a book everyone else loved, but you were like:
I feel you Ben Wyatt. And it was just a dumb, kind-of-small horse. Don't let anyone try to convince you otherwise.
It seems like people either love or hate this book. I went into it with a lot of hope from all the five star reviews, but also aware that the subject matter might have me wanting to throw it across the room. I was prepared for a heart breaker and a moving experience. However, much to my surprise, I felt... nothing. I meh this book. For me, this was nothing more than an average, if somewhat uncomfortable, read.
Yes, I was disturbed by a 26 year old man having sexual relations with a 13 year old. The fact that Kellen was the only parental figure Wavy had ever known and had been caring for her since she was 8 only made the matter worse. I guess I'm supposed to think that what Kellen and Wavy have isspecial and that their inappropriate relationship makes sense for these characters. But isn't that what every pedophile thinks? That the world is just ignorant to their unique love? That it's different for them? Consider me unconvinced.
Outside of the controversial aspect, I'm not sure what this book has to offer. I found that when I wasn't horrified reading about neglected children, domestic abuse, drugs, and pedophilia, I was pretty bored. There's no question this book is well written and the characters well developed, but not in any way I enjoyed. I didn't even like Wavy, although I did feel sorry for her. I don't think she had any appreciation for what her Aunt sacrificed for her. The only characters I connected with or really cared about were Amy and Donal.
This book will be available for purchase on August 9 2016 and is being released by Thomas Dunne Books
Rating: ★★★
We're in the midst of a pretty obnoxious, stubborn heatwave. In it's honor, I decided to review a book about a heatwave. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep takes place during the memorable 1976 heatwave that baked England dry. And in case you forget for a moment how hot it was that summer, this book will remind you, again and again. It's a debut novel that's generated a ton of buzz, and, while I didn't like it as much as some other reviewers, I recommend it. However, I do laugh a little in the direction of the Britt's definition of hot, hot, hot! weather. I don't even blink if it's 86 degrees (30 degrees to the rest of the world). That's just summer. Call me when it gets to triple digits and full humidity.
Author: Joanna Cannon
Publisher: Scribner
Release Date: 7/12/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★
Mrs. Creasy has disappeared. Enter 10-year-old Grace and her best friend Tilly. They are determined to get to the bottom of the mystery in the most logical fashion possible: by finding God. After all, God protects all his sheep and brings them home. Of course, the job of finding both God and missing neighbor becomes very complicated when all the adults are around you are keeping secrets...
This book is beautifully written, although perhaps a bit overdone at times. It did seem like 10 is too old for a child to think there is a physical manifestation of the Lord Almighty hiding out in one of the neighbors' houses. However, Grace and Tilly are lovable characters that leave you with a smile. None of the adult characters left me with a similarly positive impression, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding a neighborhood fire grew tiresome. The book both started and ended strong, but the middle sagged.
This book straddles the line between young adult and new adult. I have given the title over to the latter. I don't read a lot of new adult, mostly because I haven't had any luck with the genre. This book is better than others of its kind. It was hard to write this review, because I can't talk about "the twist" without spoilers. All I can say is that it's in line with a trope I cringe when I encounter. However, these authors handle it well.
Title: You Before Anyone Else
Authors: Julie Cross and Mark Perini
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: 8/1/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC via NetGalley
Rating: ★★★
Finley is a model who is tired of getting the cold shoulder at casting calls because of her "good girl" reputation. After all, she's close with her family, helps out with her younger twin brothers and knits (of all things!). Looking to shed her goody goody image, she decides to let lose and have a one night stand with bad boy Eddie Wells.
No, really.
But if you can get past the silliness that a model can somehow get booked for jobs by hooking up with a stranger, there's a lot to like about this book. Both Finley and Eddie wind up being likable, if sometimes a bit bland, characters. Eddie lacks some serious edge for being the "bad boy." I was worried when "the twist" materialized, because we live in a culture that increasingly romanticizes this sort of situation. The ending of this book could have gone very wrong, but it wound up surprising me by striking the exact right note. I was worried I wouldn't be able to relate to a romance about models, but that wasn't a problem.
This book exceeded my expectations in many ways, but there were places where it still struggled. The dialogue tagging is a bit dodgy, the writing very average, and the plot movement a bit turbulent. Finley's story lacked the conflict and depth that Eddie's did, and everything worked out for her a little too well to be interesting.
Author: Sam Polk
Publisher: Scribner
Release Date: 7/19/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC via NetGalley
Rating: ★★★
It took thirty years for Sam Polk to learn a valuable lesson: there's never *enough* to fill the void. Never enough money, never enough sex, never enough praise, never enough accomplishments. If you have a hole inside, nothing on the outside call fill it. Not that Polk didn't spend about a decade trying. After graduating Columbia, he rose up the ranks of investment banking. But there was always something just out of his reach. One year he earned a bonus of nearly 4 million dollars, but his old insecurities of being undervalued and unappreciated resurfaced, causing him to fly into a rage. He'd hit his breaking point. How did he get to the point where 4 million dollars wasn't *enough*? After dedicating his entire adult life to the mass accumulation of wealth, Polk decided to make a change.
This is an honest, naked memoir, which, despite the title, is more about Polk as a human being rather than a larger statement on greed and Wall Street. There were times I wanted to hug Polk and times I wanted to throttle him. Mostly, I just felt sorry for him. I don't think I'll ever forget the passage about the death of his poor childhood dog, OJ. Polk is a classic addictive personality, and I'm not convinced he has the greatest perspective on it. He blames his excesses on both his father and the Wall Street "culture," but I think a lot of it is just him. While Polk tries to get a grip on his demon with the help of a "spiritualist" whose sole "credentials" are a Native American heritage, I would strongly recommend a licensed therapist to those who find themselves in similar shoes.
I'm disappointed this book isn't as much about economics and Wall Street as I'd assumed, but Polk makes his life a compelling story.
Title: You'll Grow Out of It
Author: Jessi Klein
Publisher: Grand Central
Release Date: 7/12/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★
I didn't who Jessi Klein was before picking up this book. Still don't, really. What attracted me to this memoir was book blurb-- a woman who feels like she's on the outside of femininity, looking in. Even though I was hardly a tom boy (or tom man, to use the author's phrase), I also had/have no interested in typical girly things-- and my mother has been in the fits of anxiety about it for the last three decades. I thought I would find Klein's writing relatable and funny. And sometimes I did. But other times I wasn't sure I could stand one more page about the author's depressing sex life and relationships.
I had sort of a love-hate relationship with this book, chuckling out loud at some parts and left cold by others. Much to my disappointment, only a small portion is about the aforementioned phenomenon of the grown up tom boy. Most of the book is about her failed relationships. All these comedienne memoirs are starting to run together for me. It feels like they've all dated (and complained about) the same exact men. I think I might have enjoyed this book more had I not read Bossypants only a month earlier. There's nothing in here that Tina Fey can't, and didn't, do better.
You'll Grow Out of It is basically a funny rerun of other books.
Title: All Is Not Forgotten
Author: Wendy Walker
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: 7/12/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★
How far would you go to protect *your* child? What if it's at the expense of someone else's?
Fifteen-year-old Jenny Kramer is brutally assaulted and raped in the woods, a few hundred feet from a high school party. Her parents consent to a medical treatment that prevents Jenny from remembering the rape. After all, it's best to move on, right? And what can help a victim move on better than forgetting?
But all is not forgotten. Jenny is tormented by knowing she was raped but not knowing any of the details. She is tortured by the feeling of wanting to crawl out of her skin but not understanding why. It's only after she attempts suicide that her parents agree to memory recall therapy. That brought the Kramer family to Dr. Alan Forrester, who is the narrator of the story. And things get tricky.
"I have no remorse... Hate me if you must."
How grateful I am for the permission. The narrator turns out to be a twisted individual with limited introspection. He's also the only person who can tell Jenny's full story. I think some readers will be tempted to excuse his actions because he "saved his son." But I don't see a loving father. I see a monster. He *put* his child in the cross hairs. He had the power to clear his son's name. But instead the good doctor chose to manipulate and destroy. Throughout the book, he calls his need to treat Jenny "selfish." Only at the very end does it become clear just how true that is.
This is a good, not great, thriller. I definitely didn't see the twists and turns coming, but sometimes the book got bogged down in neuroscience.
