The Movie Version by Emma Wunsch
On Sale October 11, 2016 by Amulet Books
Rating: ★★
"Terrific? That's not how to describe Toby. He's charming and brilliant and bright and shiny. Toby is the movie star is his own movie! In all our movies!"
Amelia hero-worships her older brother, Toby, and always has. But here's the thing about building idols: when they falter, your world might come crashing down along with them. For Amelia, this moment comes when her brother starts exhibiting signs of a serious mental illness. She finds herself entirely unprepared to deal with the new reality.
In fact, most of this book is about Amelia unable to deal with Toby no longer being her cool big brother any more. That's because Amelia is an incredibly self-centered and immature character. It's obvious there's something wrong with Toby, but instead of being concerned about him, she whines about how she can't show him off properly to her new boyfriend. And that brings me to the romance portion of the book, which is awful. Amelia and Epstein have no chemistry together. She barely likes him, but she "loves" him, and they have sex... because. The sex scenes are incredibly uncomfortable and awkward. And it never seems to stop, because Amelia is constantly reminding us about it.
I didn't feel like this book had much of an ending, because nothing transformative happened. Amelia is still disappointed in Toby over something he can't control, and seems little more at peace with his illness than where she started. The only character who grew on me was Ray, Amelia's best friend, and she was the lone one in the book who put aside her own feelings to help someone else. Unfortunately, Amelia's parents are as self-centered as she is and deal with Toby's illness just about as well.
I'm not against showing drug use in YA books, but pot is pervasive in this book. It reinforces the stereotype that pot smokers are lazy bums disinterested in life, because none of these characters seemed to have any passions or plans for their future. I also grew tired of hearing about how Amelia didn't have her driver's license yet. It's mentioned about a million times throughout the book. Apparently, if you're not at the DMV the second you turn 16, there's something wrong with you.
The synopsis of this book is really misleading. I know mental illness is a popular theme in YA right now, but its one I mostly avoid. And I was disappointed in how this book used such a serious topic as a plot device. Poor Toby.
Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge
On Sale October 4, 2016 by Nation Books
Rating: ★★★★
November 23, 2013. There's nothing remarkable about the 24 hours that made up that day, no reason the date sticks out in our collective memory. Five years later, there won't be a nationwide memorial scheduled, and we won't glance down at the calendar and gasp: "has it really been that long since...?"No, November 23, 2013 was just a typical, average day in America. And that means 10 children died from gun violence.
Author Gary Younge tells the story of these ten lives tragically cut short, and, in doing so, he tries to paint the picture of an entire nation. Because as much as this is the victims' story, Younge would argue that it's also ours as a whole.The only thing all ten young people profiled in this book have in common apart from the date and manner of their deaths was their gender. All ten victims were male. Their ages spanned from just nine to nineteen. They lived in rural Michigan, suburban Ohio, and inner-city Chicago. Seven of them were African-American. They were high school graduates with good jobs and gangbangers with criminal records. Some were shot deliberately, some by accident. None of them should have died that day.Younge does an excellent job of telling their stories, even in the two instances where the family refused to speak with him. He's honest and frank about the lives he memorializes. One of the victims was released from jail just days before his death and was rumored to have killed people. Apart from the two pre-teen victims, all had factors that make them "unsympathetic" in the eyes of the national media: a combination of trouble at home, trouble with the law, gang connections, and experimentation with drugs. But, as the author would argue, no one deserves to die of gun violence, no matter who they are.This book examines varied aspects of America's so-called gun culture. Raised in England, the author is unapologetic in his support of political gun control. He investigates issues like smart guns and why this technology is currently DOA, whether teaching gun safety to children leads to less accidents, and how joining a gang in some communities is as optional as voting for Kim Jong Un is for North Koreans. But the issue Younge touches on more than any other is the misguided idea of the "worthy victim." And, yet, I don't think it's random that the first chapter in the book is about the youngest boy to die that day: a fun-loving nine-year-old who gets stuck in the cross hairs of a domestic violence dispute.If you're a card carrying member of the NRA, this is probably not the book for you. As an American who generally supports the 2nd Amendment, but is open to restrictions like child locks and background checks, I found the author's approach measured and even-handed. I disagreed with some of his assertions on the role of economic class, and I raised an eyebrow at a father who didn't know the number of children he had, nor their birthdays, being praised as "devoted."It's not hard for me to recommend this book. 4.5 stars.
The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
On Sale September 20, 2016 by Katherine Tegan Books
Rating: ★★★★★
I'm not entirely sure I have the words for this one, but I'll go ahead and try. This book is dark and violent and awesome... and I think I'll be processing what the holy heck I just read for a while to come. If you read this book, prepare to clear out some head space for the story to come and live in.
In the small, insular Ohio town where she grows up, Alex Craft is the girl with the dead sister. Not much more. She doesn't interact with her classmates, and they make no move to include her. That's until she catches the eyes of Jack Fisher-- the all-American boy who plays on every sports team, gets good grades and has no shortage of girls vying for a place in his bed. Once he notices Alex, really notices her, he can't get her out of his mind. Peekay also notices Alex but with very different motivation. Peekay is pigeonholed to the role of preacher's kid and is looking for a friend who sees her in a different light. Alex struggles with social interaction, but the two are able to cobble together a growing friendship as they volunteer at the local animal shelter.
And, oh, yeah, Alex Craft is also kind of a cold-blooded murderer:
"This is how I kill someone. And I don't feel bad about it."
"I am a wolf that my sister kept in a cage, until her hand was removed."
Alex Craft is the character I thought Jane Steele would be when I read the blurb for Jane Steele. She's a mixture of righteousness and cruelty. It's easy to fear her and admire her. You hope she'll be able to run off with Jack and start a happy little family while also thinking she really needs to be in jail.
And I did not see that ending coming.
For better or worse, it's impossible to deny this book has an effect. It's one of the most memorable books I've read all year. I will say that for a YA book, I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be with my teen reading this. I'll have to get back to you on that.
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.
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrick Backman
Published May 3, 2016 by Atria
Rating: ★★★★
You see, Britt-Marie does not judge people. No, certainly not. That would be uncivilized.
"Britt-Marie would obviously never consider the woman to be "fat," because Britt-Marie is absolutely not the kind of person who pigeonholes people like that, but it does strike her how wonderful it must be for the woman to go through life so untroubled by her cholesterol levels."
Again, you see, it's just a matter of their being a wrong way to do things and a correct way. A clean, hygienic way. Unfortunately, and quite baffling to Britt-Marie, no one seems to care for, appreciate, or even notice the correct and clean and hygienic way of doing things. For years, Britt-Marie had dinner ready at six o'clock, as any person not raised by wolves would, and her husband Kent never said a word in thanks. He never commented on her carefully crafted hairstyle or paid attention to her superior use of baking soda. Never complimented her cooking without having to be asked first.
"Britt-Marie doesn't know when their marriage slipped out of her hands. When it became worn and scratched up no matter how many coasters were used."
Britt-Marie spent so much her life worrying about what other people thought of her, of how scandalous it would be to have someone see an unmade bed or muddy shoes tracking on the floor, only to realize at age 63 that no one's thought about her much at all. And Kent's been having an affair. For the first time in decades, she's on her own and looking for work.
Borg is the type of town the world forgot. It sits along the side of a highway, gutted and turned into ghost town by the financial crisis (a reasoning Britt-Marie doesn't trust because, after all, Kent said the financial crisis was over, and Kent was an entrepreneur). Britt-Marie is sent there to work a temporary position at the recreation center. Soon she finds herself the coach of a rag tag team of soccer youths, despite having no interest in the sport whatsoever. For the first time in her life, Britt-Marie needs to figure out just who Britt-Marie is when she's not living for someone else.
I'm a fan of Fredrik Backman's particular brand of emotional manipulation, and I very much enjoyed this book. It definitely has similarities to A Man Called Ove although it's not as well-done. I think Ove fans will be very much at home with Britt-Marie.
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.
