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Wiess, Laura. 2008. Leftovers.

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Thanks to old pal Sully - I've been tagged with the "5 Things" meme thang. CLICK the image to see it BIG - or squint along with the rest!

And now the"tag, you're it" goes to 5 others - who hopefully have not yet fulfilled this enlightened task - and also will not hate me for it!
Comedic genius and peepster, Lisa Yee
Adrienne at "What Adrienne Thinks About That"
Gregory K. of "Gotta Book"
Crazed librarians, Carl and Bill of "Boys Read-Boys Rule!"
Illustrator and Montreal-bookmate, Susan Mitchell

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Na, An. 2008. The Fold. Releases April 2008.

Joyce stared at herself in the mirror, twisting her head from side to side, finger combing more of her long black hair over the unsightly bulge that used to be her temple. What had started as a tiny red bump had swollen and grown in circumference with each passing hour and day, building up over the week into a massive burial mound on the side of her head. And though Joyce had tried to head it off with her arsenal of tools and tricks accumulated over years of poring through beauty magazines, the medication, steaming and "gentle" squeezing did nothing to stop the growth.

What can I say about The Fold? In some ways it's your typical YA novel. A teen unhappy with the way she looks, a teen who feels that her life would be better if she could just look a certain way, a teen who thinks that she could get the guy of her dreams if only....if only. Joyce is such a teen. She feels her sister, Helen, is the pretty one, the perfect one. The one she'll never live up to in a million years. (Authentic feeling for a little sister to have? Yes!) There is also a little brother. Joyce is the middle child. The narrator is Korean-American. And there is that angle of the novel. While some things are specific to that culture, many things--many feelings are universal. The crush on the guy out of her league, for example, the typical problem between friends, family (parents and siblings) and school drama, etc.

Joyce's dream of coming back "beautiful" and "perfect" after summer vacation are within reach due to her aunt's winning of the lottery. Her aunt who is big into plastic surgery wins big and passes along gifts to her family. Some of her gifts tend to be controversial, however, and are geared to alter who the person is. In a way that is. For example, the little brother wants to grow tall so he can play basketball. She gives him a bottle of pills (or some such thing) that is supposed to "help" him grow. The older sister gets a matchmaker. A gift that is so NOT welcome. Her aunt feels she needs a boyfriend to be "happy." And Joyce's gift??? Well, her aunt wants to gift her with plastic surgery. A cosmetic surgery to give her eyelid folds.

Joyce has conflicting emotions about the surgery, about the procedure. Part of her feels that she needs it to be beautiful. That she's unacceptable, "ugly" without it. That her aunt was saying that she needs surgery to be as beautiful as her sister. That she needs an extra boost to match up to everyone's expectations. But a part of her feels that it is a drastic step. And perhaps an unnecessary one at that?

Beauty. Self-esteem. Self-image. Self-loathing. Sibling Rivalry.

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Zarr, Sarah. 2008. Sweethearts.

A dripping faucet.
Crumbs and a pink stain on the counter.
Half of a skin-black banana that smells as old as it looks.
If I look at these things and at nothing else, concentrated on them and stay still, and don't make any noise, this will be over soon and I can go home without Cameron's dad ever knowing I'm here.

In that image-packed opening to the prologue, we meet Jennifer Harris, a fifth grader, who followed her best friend, Cameron, home from school on her birthday. He told her he had a special gift just for her. What she didn't know--couldn't know--was that Cameron's father was an abusive man. A rageful man.

Some memories are slippery. There are things I want to remember about Cameron Quick that I can't entirely, like the pajamas he wore when he used to sleep over, and his favorite cereal, or how it felt to hold his hand as we walked home from school in third grade. I want to remember exactly how we became friends in the first place, a definite starting line that I can visit again and again. He's a story I want to know from page one.

Isn't that a great opening? That's the first paragraph of chapter one. Jenna is now in high school. (I want to say 17, but it could be 16 or 18.) She's Jennifer no longer. Jennifer was lonely, miserable, teased, picked on, a cry baby who wore her heart on her sleeve. Jennifer was an outcast. A loser. Jenna, well, Jenna is transformed. She's beautiful. She's popular. She's scared and sensitive on the inside (at times) but doesn't show it. Jenna Vaughn. J.V. Cool kid at last.

Sweethearts is the story of what happens to Jenna's life when Cameron Quick comes back from the dead. Okay, this isn't supernatural. Her mother let her believe a lie "for her own good" of course. Cameron Quick moved away quickly, suddenly, without a word, without a trace. The facts? His mother had finally worked up the courage to leave her husband. Cutting all ties to the past. Trying to start over--out of sight--somewhere new, somewhere they couldn't be found.

Can Jenna reconcile her past with her present? Does her heart still have room for her former best friend?

Sweethearts is a wonderful novel. I loved it. I really and truly loved it. The writing, the style, the characters, everything about this novel was so good, so right, as close to perfect as a writer can hope to achieve. Sara Zarr's powerful imagery is just fabulous in my opinion.

There are moments I missed being Jennifer the way you can miss versions of yourself when you get a totally new haircut, or a favorite pair of jeans finally wears out. Even though it was sad that I'd spent so much time home alone eating and reading, the truth was that those were some of my favorite memories. Getting lost in a book with something sweet or salty or hopefully both, like stacks of crackers with butter and jelly, seemed, in some ways, the closest I'd gotten to complete and total happiness. (66)

*Note I read an ARC of this.

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Haworth-Attard, Barbara. 2007. A is for Angst. (Read in 2007. Reviewed in 2008)

The first thing you should know about this review, is that I feel slightly out of place reviewing it. I read it the week before Christmas. I've read about nine and half books since then. So it is what it is. A is for Angst has an unusual beginning to say the least. Not many YA books begin with a narrator playing with dolls. Let alone playing dirty with dolls. But A is for Angst isn't your typical book. Our heroine, Teresa, is fourteen and practicing what it would be like to be in bed with a boy. Her boyfriend is borrowed from an old friend, Barbie. Yes, that's right. Her mother catches her making out in bed with a naked Ken doll. (Talk about embarrassing!)

Her family is half-Maltese, half-English, completely Catholic, and 100% crazy. Her mom, at the possible detriment to her health at the ripe old age of 42, is expecting an unexpected “Boo-Boo.” Her shy father can’t even say ‘boo.’ Her beloved gnome-ish grandfather can’t remember who she is. Her sister is a wedding bridezilla, and her brother is sub-human (barely). No wonder Teresa must pray to the HP (Higher Power) to get a boyfriend, namely AAA (Achingly Adorable Adam), who is an AN (Above-Normal), A.S.A.P. (you know what I mean). No amount of list-making can possibly keep this all straight. Welcome to her life!

But that is just the prologue. In twenty six chapters, Teresa's life unfolds before all. Each chapter begins with a different letter of the alphabet. A is for angst. I is for Introspection and Idiot. Etc. The book deals with familiar topics...school dramas, friendship stress, family relationships. All of the plot lines have been done before in some way or other. But that isn't a bad thing. The book, the story, is entertaining. It doesn't have to be unique, groundbreaking, or original. If I were to compare it to other books, I would say it vaguely reminds me of Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging. Vaguely. Let me explain. Teresa like Georgia is fourteen. She's a bit self-occupied at times. And she has trouble relating to her parental units. She also has a tendency to get into really embarrassing situations. And she's crazy about a guy who doesn't know she's alive. And while she can't have the one she really wants, she's content to have a practice boyfriend of sorts. But not everything is similar to that one novel. Add in a mix of wants-to-be-popular really really badly taken from countless other novels, and you've got A is for Angst.

I sincerely enjoyed the book. It held my attention. It was a pleasurable experience. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to teens who can't get enough of this type of fiction. But it's not one that I love, love, love either.

(If you're looking for a "clean read" look elsewhere. I mention this only because since I review books for the Deliciously Clean website, I know some of my readers find my site through those links.)

I just have to mention that this cover belongs in one of the trends of 2007. Featuring Mattel dolls on book covers. See also Anatomy of a Boyfriend and Fake Boyfriend.

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Peterson, Margaret Haddix. 2001. Takeoffs and Landings.

Can a two week vacation with your mother change your life? It can if you’re Chuck and Lori and your mother is a famous motivational speaker. Don’t believe me?... read TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS. After Chuck and Lori lose their father in a tragic tractor accident, their mother begins to support the family by traveling all over the United States giving motivational speeches for various companies and conventions. With each trip, her older children have resented her more and more. Resented the fact that she’s never there. Resented the fact that she’s different than before. Resented the fact that she never talks about their father. Living with their grandparents and younger brothers and sisters who can barely remember their father, life has moved on for all but them. But now their mom is home and convinced that she can change her relationship with her son and daughter if only she can spend some quality time with them. So relunctantly, the three set off on a wild trip...full of emotions...full of expectations...and nobody certain of the outcome.

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Bingham, Kelly. 2007. Shark Girl.

A verse novel. I typically love or hate verse novels. Sonya Sones, I love her verse novels. Ellen Hopkins, hit or miss with me most of the time. So I didn't know quite what to expect from Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham. Jane is a young teen (15 going on 16) whose life changes dramatically after a day at the beach. As you can probably guess by the title, Jane is the victim of a shark attack. She survives--her right arm doesn't. The novel is about how she recovers, how she refocuses, how she redefines herself, her life. Who is she now? Is she the "victim" or the "brave" survivor, Shark Girl, that the media wants her to be? Is she the same person as she was before? After all, she has dreamed of being an artist practically her whole life. She's won competitions and everything. Her philosophy for a while is "now what????" Most YA books deal with identity and redefining yourself and fine-tuning what you want and who you are and all. Most YA book deal with family relationships, family boundaries, and friendship and high school, etc. This one does that but it's original, unique. Jane's voice is unique, authentic, genuine. Her problems are real. Her emotions--like all humans--fluctuate and change minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, etc. This book has a little something for everyone.

Here's an example of the writing:

Corny

It sounds cliched.
But at times like this,
I miss my dad.
I mean,
I don't remember him--
he died of cancer when I was three.
Pictures
are all that's left.
My favorite one is us
sitting on a bench, eating ice cream.
Our knees are knobby the same way,
we're both grinning like hyenas,
he's pointing at the camera.

I haven't had a dad in twelve years.
Most of the time,
that's okay.
But today,
right now,
I'd like a hug.
From him. (23)

And this one...

Author

I try to fill Mel's journal.
It will help, he said.
Writing a bit each day,
sparsely. The words don't
come easily. Never have. I'm not
much of a storyteller. But . . .

I could tell my story.
The Shark Girl's story.
And out of a shark's bite
could arise a fresh, raw
writer, poignant, powerful,
with a story that would win a Pulitzer.
I could.

Then I remember.
I don't like to write,
and I don't want to learn
to like to write.
Oh,
and my life is private.

So back to my entry.

Today
I got dressed by myself. (106)

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Giles, Gail. 2007. Right Behind You.

I was frightened of this book if I'm being honest. I saw the cover with the lighter and the flames. I read the description, and I was doubtful. I thought that there was no way that I could like this book, like this character. But I was wrong. I was so wrong.

Chapter 1
What I Know

On the afternoon of his seventh birthday, I set Bobby Clarke on fire.
I was nine.
It was all about Bobby's birthday present.
A baseball glove. (5)

Our narrator Kip McFarland is one-of-a-kind. After the incidents in the first chapter, which are later explained in the next chapter, Kip is placed in a mental hospital. He's cared for by doctors, watched day and night, and placed on the proper medication, given therapy and time. He doesn't speak for four months. His first words after that long period of solitude and isolation and shock are "Wile E. Coyote."

The book covers vast amounts of time--from when he's nine to when he's an older teen--a high schooler. The book is set in Alaska, in Indiana, and in Texas. The writing is concise and powerful. Everything about this book just worked. Kip was a complicated soul. He hated who he was, what he had done, and didn't know how to make a new beginning, how to really break free of his past, of his shame and guilt. In some ways he knows that he's a different person; he's changed; he's not that little boy anymore. He's more than his past mistake. But he knows that this shame will follow him everywhere he goes. Kip is in some ways a tortured soul that is seeking comfort and redemption and grace and forgiveness.

I loved Kip as a narrator. I loved his step-mom, Carrie. I know that there is not an official award given each year or each decade even recognizing most incredible literary step-mom ever...but if there was Carrie would win hands down. I think she might be one of my favorite characters of the year. I love her and her tender, grace-filled relationship with this troubled father and son.

This is an unforgettable story of love and forgiveness, grace and shame, but most importantly a story of new beginnings, redemption, and hope.

I highly recommend it. That first and second chapter is as tough as it gets--in my opinion--so don't let fear keep you from picking up Giles' latest.

I'm not sure if other reviewers would make this connection or if the writer would agree with me. I could be way off on this one. But I am a huge Frankenstein fan. Huge. Like it's one of my favorite books ever. I think I may like Kip so much because he struggles in some ways with things that Frankenstein's monster deals with. He doesn't want to be defined as a "monster." He wants to be seen, to be accepted, to be recognized for the person that he is now. He doesn't want those brief minutes, that one split decision to shape and define him as a "monster" his whole life through. He wants people to see him and know him and love him. And not be afraid of him. To look at him and not see a monster but a human being. He wants acceptance, love, friendship. He wants what we all want. He wants unconditional love.

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Alvis, Susan Smith. 2007. Friends Unlikely.

Emotionally draining but authentic never-the-less, Friends Unlikely is the tale of five friends struggling with some of life's hardest issues: drug addiction and HIV/AIDS. Carlos, one of our heroes, is a young teen addicted to drugs--specifically Meth. He's on a path for self-destruction that not even the beautiful and kind Davina can block. Raj, another of our heroes, is a young teen guy who rather dramatically discovers that he is HIV positive. Shocked that his one-night-stand could take years off his life, he never-the-less manages to respond with courage and a certain dignity that the reader can't help but admire. When the truth about how he was infected is revealed, it makes this story even more heart-wrenching. Abbie and Juan complete the five in the circle of friendship. Abbie is our narrator. She, like Davina, is compassionate and loyal. What's not to like about a heroine that sees the good in everyone? Who can face the darkest of days without giving into dismal despair? Who has the courage to support her friends with their life and death struggles?

These five friends will face some of life's hardest battles, but they'll do it together. Life isn't fair. Life isn't pretty. It's full of mistakes, heart aches, bad decisions, regrets. But because these friends have each other, they'll never give up on life.

Friends Unlikely isn't an easy read for sensitive folks who prefer neat, tidy happily-ever-after endings. But if you're looking for a good, strong dose of reality, then Friends Unlikely is where you'll find plenty to nourish you.

It isn't a perfect novel by any means, but what it lacks in subtlety (a bit too melodramatic in times, and heavy doses of foreshadowing) it makes up for with heart. You never forget that this is an issues novel--that the emphasis is always on the issues of drugs, HIV/AIDS, etc. But the characters aren't completely flat and lifeless either. Abbie and Raj especially are fleshed out.

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I've never done a mini-review before. I've always given each book my time and attention. But December has been the busiest time of the month. I'm always eight to twelve books behind. And I'm trying to post in the order I'm reading them. So that by the time I post a review, I read it anywhere from one to two-and-a-half weeks ago. So that isn't helping me out any. I'm always more at a loss of words when it's been that long.

The next two books are books I've read for Cybils. None of them are "bad" necessarily. But on a few of them we just didn't click that well. Call it moody reading if you want.

First up, So Not The Drama by Paula Chase. I wanted to like this book. I really did want to like it. I won this book in a contest last February or March, I believe. I had it on my Spring Reading Thing Challenge list. I think it even followed me over to the Summer Reading Thing Challenge. But we just never managed to click. I was busy. There was always another book beckoning to me. I wasn't hooked by the prologue or first chapter, etc. When it was nominated for a Cybils, I knew I'd finally get a chance to sit down and read it. The book is about a group of friends. 2 guys, 2 girls. Three African-American, 1 white. The main narrator is Mina. Mina wants one thing, needs one thing: to be popular, to sit at the popular kids' table. She's captain of the junior cheerleading squad. She's popular among other freshman. But high school still takes some getting used to. She's not as popular, not as "it" as she used to be. Her rivals seem fiercer than ever. And her friends seem more distant. (Whether this is because they're drifting or because they're tired of Mina's one-note song is debatable.) Lizzie is Mina's best friend. Lizzie wants to land a role--a real role--in the drama, The Wiz. She wants to be brave enough and good enough to land the role of Dorothy. Lizzie and Mina just aren't getting along. Mina is all "Me, me, me" and Lizzie, well, Lizzie listens patiently as she can as she tries to tell Mina what's going on in her life. But Mina is NOT a good listener. And she's not such a good friend. Mina starts hanging out with some other girls and she doesn't know quite how to make it work. Does she include the girls as part of the original group. Does she try to make Lizzie part of the new bunch? Should she have everyone hang out together or separately? And what if the new doesn't mesh with the old? The parts of So Not The Drama that I enjoyed were the parts not narrated by Mina. That probably sounds harsh, doesn't it. I really liked Lizzie. I liked the chapters on her trying out for the play. I liked the chapters where she had a voice and stood up to Mina. And some of the other characters were okay, but Mina...Mina just annoyed me. She was self-absorbed and popularity-crazed. I just didn't like hanging out with her. The good news? Everyone is different as a reader. While I didn't like Mina as a personality, you may like Mina. You may even love Mina. You might be the kind of reader that loves books about girls striving and obsessing over popularity and finding the right clique and making a real name for yourself. I would so read another book by Paula Chase if Lizzie were the main focus, the main narrator. (Paula, if you're reading and lest you think you're alone. I also dislike the main narrator in Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You and I detest the main narrator, Jessica, in Megan McCafferty's series...Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, Charmed Thirds, etc. Which in many people's opinions would put Mina in first-class society as Someday is getting great buzz as one of the best books of the year and the Megan McCafferty series is hugely popular.)


You might be laughing at me calling these mini-reviews in the first paragraph. Like I could really keep something short and sweet. But with the third review for this post...I hope to be just that. Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List. This one is by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. I didn't like last years book that they coauthored. I found it too full of profanity and not redemptive enough in the end. I liked bits and pieces of it I did. But it was just too much for me. When the author feels the need to have twenty to thirty f-words in a two page spread...it's just too much. There are other words, people. Hello. We get the point that the kid likes saying that word. Now get on with the plot already. But I was alone in my opinion. I think it was relatively popular. I don't know that it could rival Stephenie Meyer's books in popularity. But it was a successful book. My expectations were low. I didn't know if I'd like it or hate it. But I doubted I would love, love, love it. I'd say I liked it less than the first but for different reasons. This book had less profanity in my opinion. But it didn't have that sparkling, charismatic romance. The book wasn't a proper romance. This wasn't a book where a girl and a boy or (a boy and a boy for that matter) sizzle it up. It lacked chemistry. It lacked sparkle. It tried to give us a bit of it I think. Naomi's boyfriend, Bruce, and Naomi's best gay-guy friend, Ely, share a forbidden kiss. It happened--so they say--quite by chance. Naomi wanted them to be friends so they could hang out altogether. But what happens one day while she's not there...is a secret, forbidden kiss that they both enjoyed a bit too much. Much is predictable in this book. Of course Naomi is in love with her gay best friend. Yes, she's hoping that he'll wake up one day and realize that he's not gay but straight and is madly in love with her. Yes, she's just having fill-in guys be her boyfriend and not getting emotionally involved with anyone because she's saving her heart and her body for a man who doesn't want it. So Naomi is crushed by Ely not Bruce when the truth comes out. I think the reason I didn't like this novel was because it was told from too many different perspectives. It wasn't just two or three or even four. There were strange narrators popping in and out all over the place. There was just too many characters, too many narrators, too many small stories going on, and lack of focus in general. It zoomed in and out and around and fluttered around all over the place--busy as a bee going from flower to flower--but in the end I didn't care for many of the characters or the stories they told. The one thing I loved about the first book was largely missing from the second.

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Mead, Alice. 2007. Dawn and Dusk.

There really aren't that many children's books out there dealing with the subject matter of Dawn and Dusk. Set relatively close to the border of Iran/Iraq in the 1980s, Dawn and Dusk is the story of a Kurdish community, a Kurdish family, torn apart by war. Both the Iranian and Iraqi armies are hostile to the Kurds. So really during the war, no one knew who to support. They just had war on both sides and were fighting for survival. Our narrator is a young teen boy named Azad. Azad's parents are divorced. His mom lives with his uncle. He loves to visit her whenever he can. His father, well, his relationship with his father is difficult. His father is absent even when he's physically present. The book is about the war, about his family, about living life facing the threat of death.

It's hard to say that you "enjoyed" a book about war and chemical warfare and the fight to survive another day. . . but I thought it was well-written. Azad's friends and family are well-developed and the loss and confusion feels authentic.

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Hale, Stephanie. 2007. Revenge of the Homecoming Queen.

Aspen Brooks is beautiful. She's beautiful and she knows it. Not that she's deep in her heart of hearts a total snob. Not completely. Oh, on the surface, Aspen may be your typical beautiful, shallow girl who dreams of nothing but winning the tiara. But deep down there has to be something more, right?

This is such a movie moment. This is the part where the fabulous herone's dream finally comes true. I, of course, am the fabulous heroine. My dream of becoming homecoming queen is just moments away. I can almost feel the weight of the tiara on my head. Eww . . . I hope it doesn't mess up my hair because I'm having a stellar hair day. (1)

Homecoming week. The time has come. Will Aspen's dreams become reality? Yes and no. Is the title of homecoming queen hers? No. Sadly, she's just a princess on the court. But that could be the best thing that ever happened to our heroine. Rand Bachrach has just been named King. Rand? Really? A person she doesn't deem popular enough to even speak with in passing let alone be friends with? Something strange is going on here. Something or someone is out to ruin her perfect life.

A strange life-altering week is on the way for our heroine and her friends and family. A week full of ups and downs and hidden moments. The time has come for the ultimate test--Is Aspen Brooks a snob? A shallow, mindless snob? Or is there something deeper, something greater, something more deep within and waiting for the perfect moment to show itself...

Fun, lighthearted, enjoyable. The only thing that irks me about this book is that it shows our heroine drinking a hot drink--cocoa or chocolate or something similar--through a straw. Realistic? No. Here's why. It's impossible to drink a hot drink through a straw without burning your tongue. Not just a tip of the tongue that you can get away with ignoring. But the whole darn thing. You won't be able to properly taste food for a week. So I'm totally not buying her excuse that she doesn't want to dribble chocolate on her clothes so the straw is the only way to drink hot chocolate. Not hot chocolate bought at a restaurant or coffee shop. It would be too hot. Way too hot. Maybe at home where you can heat it and know that it is just lukewarm and not hot hot. But still. She calls this the best hot chocolate of her life. There's no way it could have come through a straw and been appreciated. If she had sipped the chocolate through a straw she'd be saying something alright--but it wouldn't be kind words or happy thoughts about how good it was. I just don't buy that anyone would volunteer for this experience more than once. But other than that the book is fine.

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Elkeles, Simone. 2007. Leaving Paradise.

Leaving Paradise is narrated by two teens--Caleb, a teen just released from juvenile detention for running over someone while he was drunk, and Maggie, the teen, the victim, who is still recovering from her injuries and learning how to walk, how to function. Caleb may seem at first glance like an unlikely hero for a book. After all, if he really was drunk, really did run someone over, really did leave the scene of the accident, then why is he such a good guy? Why is he so likable? Maggie used to have a huge crush on Caleb. He was the twin brother, of one of her former friends, Leah. The accident ended their friendship and dashed Maggie's dreams of happily ever after with that guy. After all, how could she ever love the guy who hit her? But a romance is straight where this book is heading--at least at first glance. Maggie and Caleb. They're forbidden to see one another, forbidden to have contact. Yet fate has a different plan, a different reason for always making sure these two are thrown together. Is such forgiveness, such love, such grace possible? The back cover reads What happens when the person who damaged you for life . . . becomes the person you trust most?

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Cooney, Caroline B. 2007. Diamonds in the Shadow.

What can I say about Diamonds in the Shadow? Really? So much reading is beginning to get to me. I love it, it's true, but I feel like I'm starting to use the same adjectives over and over and over again. How many ways are there to say good? to say powerful? to say compelling? to say interesting or fascinating? How many ways to say I couldn't put it down?

Secrets. Lies. Shame. Guilt. Fear. Suspicion. Regret. Anger. Distrust. Danger. Murder.

Diamonds in the Shadow is the story of the Finch family. A dad, a mom, a brother, and a sister. The narrative is told mainly through the eyes of these two siblings. Although not exclusively through their eyes. The Finch family is taking in a refugee family from Africa. Their church is sponsoring this family.

In Africa, five people got on a plane. In America, twelve people attended a committee meeting at the Finches' house.

Jared is a typical semi-rebellious boy. He's so not interested in African refugees. He's hostile to the idea that some African refugee is going to be sharing his room, using his things, getting in his way, going to his school, etc. Mopsy, the girl, (I believe it is a nick name) is ecstatic about taking in the family. She hopes and she prays that the refugee family will have a girl. She thinks it would be awful if she didn't get the chance to share her room, share her life, make a new best friend.

The novel is all about relationships. Exploring relationships. Exploring ethics. The church committee did say that there are no "good guys" in refugee camps. That most people fleeing were not strictly innocent. Everything about war--about civil war--about terrorists and warfare--is complicated. The refugees are supposed to be screened, monitored, checked, but even so...

One of the things I loved about this novel was the interaction between the two families. During the course of a month or possibly two months, everyone is different, every life has been affected. The family dynamics have been restructured, redefined. Jared began out with very little understanding, very little compassion. He saw the world in terms of black and white and right and wrong. When I say black and white I'm not speaking racially or culturally. But rather I'm speaking of morally, ethically. He thought things were always clearly one way or the other. Nothing fuzzy, nothing iffy, nothing gray, nothing cloudy.

I think this one would be a great novel to read and discuss as part of a group--whether a book club, a class, or a family. It was both thought-provoking and suspenseful. It had action, but it had depth and substance as well. The characters were well-developed for the most part. (With Mr. Finch being the least developed, the least "present" to the situation, to the action.) I do recommend this one.

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Velde, Vivian Vande. 2007. Remembering Raquel.

Remembering Raquel is an interesting novel. Told from many perspectives, many narrators, it is an examination of one girl, a so-called social "nobody," an invisible, is remembered after her tragic death by her classmates.

It's amazing how much dying can do for a girl's popularity.
I mean, I'm sitting here in the funeral parlor watching Erin McCall and my other classmates standing around Raquel Falcone's dad, each one of them acting like Raquel's best friend. i don't know if Erin's just doing her usual center-of-attention thing, or if she's actually trying to make Mr. Falcone feel better. That's what you do for a dead person's family--tell them she'll be missed even if you never once had a nice word for her or about her.
I know what I'm talking about: I was there in homeroom when Mrs. Bellanca broke the news.
She told us all to sit down, and I have to believe that was at least partly so she could see where the empty desk was--I don't think she was exactly sure which one to connect Raquel's name to. Certain kids have a tendency to be invisible.
"I'm afraid I have some bad news for you," Mrs. Bellanca said.
Her plan to prepare us did the opposite. I couldn't have been the only one who suspected that another standardized test was about to be announced. Or an assembly . . . (1-2)

It's a short read. And it's a powerful one in my opinion. Different narrators, different stories, different observations about life, about living. All voices trying to make sense out of the death. Raquel was coming out from a movie, chatting with people on the sidewalk, when suddenly she was in the street right in front of a coming car. Was it accidental? Did she trip? Did she lose her balance? Was she pushed or shoved? Or did she commit suicide?

Overall, I recommend this one. I enjoyed it. It was fast. And while it wasn't "fun" necessarily--books about death and grieving are never 'fun'--I think it is important. There are many books this year that show that actions have consequences. That actions, that words--either harsh or kind--do make an impact. This is one of those kinds of books. I think the "invisible" misfits or outcasts of a class are ignored by classmates and teachers. Because they're ignored, because they're invisible. I think some must think it's okay. That their inactions aren't harmful, aren't as psychologically damaging as physical or verbal abuse. Anyway, I think this book is good in that it gives readers a chance to walk in many different shoes, to see life through many eyes.

But now, all of a sudden, it's Poor Raquel, and Sweet Raquel, and No-I-Never-Talked-to-Her-in-School-but-She-Was-My-Role-Model-and-Best-Bud Raquel.

And this gem of wisdom comes from Stacy Galbo's chapter:

You can be in (which is a select few), or you can be not in (which is the vast majority), or you can be out (but then you're not part of any crowd, because that's what "out" means). So I do my best to set a good standard to be civil to all, and to talk behind the backs of only the outest of the out. (82)

Now I feel terrible. And I wonder: What would have happened if I had gone out of my way to be nice to her? If I hadn't just refrained from bashing her, but had tried talking to her--about hair and clothes and diet and stuff? Not enough contact with her to jeopardize my own standing, which I've worked so hard to attain, but enough to help her improve herself so she wouldn't be so sad and hopeless. (84)

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Harazin, S.A. 2007. Blood Brothers.

What can I say about Blood Brothers? Based on the title, it's not one I'd pick up typically. (I don't typically "do" books with blood in the title.) But as with a good majority of books I wouldn't "usually" pick up, I found myself enjoying this one a great deal. From what I can recall, Clay has just graduated from high school, and the narrative begins in the summer before his first semester of college. (Then again I could have my books mixed up, and this could be the summer before his senior year and it's his friend that is getting ready to go to college.) Clay is seventeen and working at the local hospital. He cleans and preps mostly. He does what he's told. He's responsible. He's punctual. He listens. He's closer to the model of a good teen instead of a poster boy of the bad, rebellious sort. But he's not perfect. It's not like he's never smoked or never drank. He's human after all. The book opens with him at the hospital. A girl--a teen girl--comes in in very bad shape. Her death rattles him, shakes him up and snaps him out of the funk that he's been in since he discovered his girlfriend is hitting on his best friend, Joey. Witnessing someone die can put things into perspective. So Clay on his way home from work stops by his friends house. He wants to make up with his friend. He wants to make things right between them. But he finds Joey, naked and alone, in a shed wielding a shovel and going out of his mind. After Joey starts attacking him with a shovel--and does in fact cut him with a shovel--Clay pushes Joey off of him. Joey falls and, I believe, hits his head. Clay calls 911 and soon help is on the way. But Clay's problems are just beginning.

Clay and Joey are from two different classes--socioeconomic classes. Rich kid, poor kid. Privileged and Un. Suddenly Joey's parents, Joey's friends, and to certain (yet small) degree the local cops all find Clay to be the one to blame. Their precious, darling son wouldn't ever consume alcohol let alone drugs if it hadn't been for that rotten kid, Clay. And Joey's friends, well, they're either staying quiet because they know what happened OR they're wildly speculating and spreading rumors that Clay was out to get Joey.

Clay is a likable guy. A good guy. He's a narrator that I really enjoyed. Life isn't fair, but you hope that Clay gets a good break. You want him to succeed. You want him to get what he wants. Joey, well, Joey is a guy we don't see much of in the novel. We encounter him naked in a shed, drunk and out of control. And we encounter him in a hospital bed in a coma. The only other glimpses we see are in Clay's flashbacks.

The situation is tragic. Two friends torn apart by drugs and alcohol. Full of reminders that actions--all actions--have consequences, Blood Brothers is a heartbreaking novel. It's powerful. It's compelling. It's tragic.

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Brande, Robin. 2007. Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature.

This one will be short. I hope. I'm not going to comment on the "evolution" bit of this book. Because I don't think that's where I had my problems with it. I think this book was just a little too close, a little too personal for me to comment on. There were parts--not all parts mind you--that I could definitely see myself in the narrator. But because of that, it was a very uncomfortable read. I didn't want to see a reflection of me in junior high and high school. Not a fun journey. For example, her relationship with her parents. This is a strict household. There are many things she's not allowed to do. One of the things she's not allowed to do is watch or read certain movies or books. So our narrator, Mena, has never seen Lord of the Rings. (Growing up, in some ways we were restricted. I didn't see Star Wars until I had graduated from high school. I saw the movies for the first time about six months before they all hit theatres again "remastered.") But there are some big, big, big differences as well. Her family. Her church. Her school. What can I say? Her "church" is not like any of the churches I've ever encountered. I've never heard of a preacher behaving in such a way or preaching such a sermon. That's not to say that the rare exception might not exist. Her youth group. It doesn't really surprise me that her youth group can turn vicious. Pastors, I don't expect that from. Teenage guys and girls, well, it's not such a surprise that teasing, that bullying, that being snobby or snotty, that being cliquish is a part of it. Social hierarchies, making yourself feel better by making other people feel bad...that can happen whether you wear the label Christian or not. I think in part that's why Christians have a bad name in some circles is because of people who really don't get it at all. They should be called anything but Christian. I haven't really read a book--a YA book--where a youth group or a pastor was presented in a good light, an accurate light, a biblical light. There are no "good" literary examples. Her school. High school is tough unless you're part of the privileged few. Mena isn't. Not anymore. Her youth group has snubbed her. Her pastor has kicked her out. Her parents aren't speaking to her. She's got zero friends. Zero support group. So it was hard for me to "like" a lot of the characters. For the most part, I liked Mena, however. I liked her crush, her lab partner, Casey. There were some things I liked about the book, I did. But there were many times I felt uncomfortable, awkward reading it. That's not the author's fault. It's my fault. Reading is subjective. I don't feel that the book is hostile to true Christianity for the most part. (Keeping evolution out of it of course). I think the book addresses the very real issue of hypocrisy. But there were parts I wanted to cringe because of what was going on. As I said, that's all me. I didn't cringe because of the writing, the style, the language. I didn't cringe because of bad cliches and metaphors. I didn't cringe because of bad dialogue. It was just that the subject matter, for me, was one that made me uncomfortable. Just like thinking about my past makes me uncomfortable. I attended a Christian school, a private school. I wouldn't relive those junior high and high school years for any amount of money. The "Christian" part was a complete mockery. Granted, the meanness may have been tame compared to public school, I don't know. But it wasn't pretty at all if you weren't part of the select few. This book wasn't set at a private school. It's a public school. But teens wearing the label "Christian" and acting anything but...a little too close to home for me to read comfortably.

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Wiess, Laura. 2007. Such A Pretty Girl.

There was something so powerful about this novel. From the very beginning, it speaks with a powerful certainty, an urgency, a mix of fear and dread. They promised me nine years of safety but only gave me three. Today my time has run out. (1) Our narrator, Meredith, is a victim of sexual abuse. Her abuser, her father, is being released from prison. Her mother, despicable self-deluded monster that she is, is taking him back. Of course "officially" her father is supposed to be living in a separate apartment. But there are a whole lot of supposed-to's that just aren't matching up with reality. Meredith's life is full of complications. There's her past, of course, and her iffy present. Even before her father's release, Meredith's mom blamed her for her husband's imprisonment. Blamed her for telling. Blamed her for his absence.

Sharon Shale, my mother, does not see what she doesn't want to see. She never has. And for the last three years, she hasn't wanted to see me. At least not in private, when no one else is watching. She's always half-turned away, ahead of or behind me, tossing out words without watching to gauge their effect, cluttering my wake with complaints of attitude, dirty dishes, or stray eyebrows plucked into the sink. She acts like my scars are on the outside and I'm too disturbing to look at head-on. So I leave proof of my existence behind me like a snail trail with the small hope that years of talking at me will someday soften her enough to talk with me, that she'll finally pull the knife from my chest and say yes, we are better off without him. That what happened wasn't my fault and from now on she will thrust herself between me and danger, and shout NO. (5-6)

Powerful. Direct. Compelling. With her father's return, her life--her future--is in jeopardy once again. Can Meredith be strong enough, smart enough, fast enough to outwit her abuser? Is there anyway she can escape her past and present so that she can claim her future?

Well written, emotional, this is one I couldn't put down. I highly recommend it.

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Caletti, Deb. 2007. The Nature of Jade.

When you live one and a half blocks away from a zoo like I do, you can hear the baboons screeching after it gets dark. It can scare the crap out of you when you're not used to it, as I found out one night after we moved in. (5)

Jade, our narrator, is a girl with a fondness--a semi-obsession--with elephants. She loves to visit the zoo, of course, and she also loves to watch the elephants online on the zoo's web cam.

Watching them isn't always thrilling and action packed, but I don't care. See, what I really like is that no matter what high-stress thing is going on in my world as a whole (Christmas, SATs, natural disasters, plane crashes, having to give a speech and being worried to death I might puke), there are the elephants, doing their thing. Just being themselves. Eating, walking around. They aren't having Christmas, or giving a speech, or stressing over horrible things in the news. They're just having another regular elephant day. Not worrying, only being. (7)

One day while watching the elephants on her computer, she sees a boy--a teen boy--with a baby. He's in a red jacket.

You pass a bunch of people in a day--people in their cars, in the grocery store, waiting for their coffee at an espresso stand. You look at apartment buildings and streets, the comings and goings, elevators crawling up and down, and each person has their own story going on right then, with its cast of characters; they've got their own frustrations and their happiness and the things they're looking forward to and dreading. And sometimes you wonder if you've crossed paths with any of them before without knowing it, or will one day cross their path again. But sometimes, too, you have this little feeling of knowing, this fuzzy, gnawing sense that someone will become a major something in your life. You just know that theirs will be a life you will enter and become part of. I feel that sense, that knowing, when I look at this boy and this baby. It is a sense of the significant. (10).

But Jade isn't just a girl who likes animals--likes the zoo. She's a girl with an anxiety disorder.

It wasn't like I panicked every time I was somewhere high up, or in an enclosed space, or during a storm. It could be none of those things, or all of them. I could (can) panic in a car, a new situation, any time a person feels a twinge of nerves. It's a twisted version of Green Eggs and Ham: I could panic in a train! I could panic on a plane! I could panic on the stairs--I could panic anywhere! (17)

It goes on to say:

People who have these panic attacks sometimes have "social anxiety," which means, basically, you don't want to go out in the world. But I think sometimes they've got their cause and effect screwed up. Would you want to get on a bus if you thought your body might do this? Would you want to be in a crowd of people? Sitting in Math? That kind of fear, that kind of physical out-of-control is . . . well, private. Anyway, I am not my illness. "Girl with Anxiety," "Trauma of the Week"--no. I hate stuff like that. Everyone, everyone, has their issue. (17-18)

I like that Jade doesn't let this issue define her. She doesn't let it control her. It's there. It's never completely gone. But she is so much more than just a girl with anxiety.

The book is in some ways your typical teen novel. Girl likes boy. Girl wants boy to notice her. Girl gets excited when he does. Girl has friends to talk and gossip with, etc. But most typical teen novels with high school narrators aren't focused on elephants, zoos, and volunteering. Most love-interests in these kinds of books aren't single fathers or sole caretakers of young children. So it is a YA romance novel. But it's a bit more than just a YA romance novel. And like many YA books it deals with a teen defining and redefining herself. Finding out who she is and what she wants and seeking out, discovering, what it will take to get there.

I loved this novel. I did. I would read certain passages and they would just ring true. The inner-thoughts of a girl with anxiety? So right on. So true. So authentic.

My inside voice too often screams unreliable things at me, misinformation--that I am in danger, that someone I love is in danger, that now is the time to panic, to flee. I am happy, because it is just so good to know that it can give a whispered message, a simple, quiet knowing, and that it can be right. (34)

I just love the style. I think Caletti definitely has a gift with words...

Every big happening has a moment of plunge, that moment of decision, usually instantaneous even if you've been thinking about it forever. That now! Toes at the edge of the pool, looking at the water, one toe in, looking some more, and then, suddenly, you're in, and it's so cold, but nice, too, and you don't even remember where in there you decided to jump. (104-105)

So, I'd definitely recommend this one.

http://www.debcaletti.com/index.php

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Noel, Alyson. 2007. Saving Zoe.

Echo is the narrator of Saving Zoe. She's gone from being the youngest to being the only child. The murder of her older sister, Zoe, has changed everything. It has not only changed the family dynamics, it's made a great impact on her emotionally and socially. She's used to the stares, used to the comments, used to the looks. She's the one. Can you believe her sister was murdered? Psychologically, the changes in Echo are HUGE. She's having to redefine who she is practically every day. For her birthday, her sister's former boyfriend gives her Zoe's diary. A diary left in his hands as a promise to return. A promise never kept. Echo reads, learns, understands, grasps. What is surprising to Echo is that the sister she thought she knew...she really didn't know. All these assumptions on her part...all those years...and there were so many things that Zoe wasn't ready, wasn't able to share with her baby sister. Echo reads about her sister's most personal, most private thoughts...and she finds herself drawn to the sister she never got a chance to know, the boyfriend she didn't have a clue about. Marc. The boyfriend. The former boyfriend. Somehow these two are drawn together in pain, in grief. Both needing closure, both needing comfort, both needing to talk, to share, to understand.

Saving Zoe is a good read. It's told through both Zoe and Echo. It's sad but not as depressing as some of the books I've been reading. But more importantly, Echo, Zoe, Marc, are characters that you can like. I'd definitely recommend this one.

They say there are five stages of grief:

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

Up until last year I didn't know there were lists like that. I had no idea people actually kept track of these things. But still, even if I had known, I never would've guessed that just a few days before my fourteenth birthday I'd be stuck in stage one. (1)

http://www.alysonnoel.com/

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For a "crisper" viewing experience - GO HERE!

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Zevin, Gabrielle. 2007. Memoirs of A Teenage Amnesiac.

Who are you? Who are you really? Are you the composite of your memories? Do your memories make you you? What would you be--who would you be--without your memories? Memoirs of A Teenage Amnesiac tells the story of Naomi. It's divided into three parts: "I Was," "I am," and "I Will." Here is how it begins:

Above all, mine is a love story.
And like most love stories, this one involves chance, gravity, a dash of head trauma.
It began with coin toss.
The coin came up tails; I was heads.
Had it gone my way, there might not be a story at all. Just a chapter or a sentence in a book whose greater theme had yet to be determined. Maybe this chapter would have had the faintest whisper of love about it, but may not.
Sometimes, a girl needs to lose.

Is that accurate? Is Memoirs of A Teenage Amnesiac 'above all' a love story? Yes and no. It's more and less than a love story. Naomi is a teenage girl. The co-editor of the high school year book. Her co-editor is her best friend, Will. The coin toss. The camera has been left behind. Someone needs to go back inside and get it. Naomi is 'fated' to do it. The trip back to the parking lot with the camera ...well, it ends with her at the bottom of the front steps with a concussion.

As you have guessed by now, she wakes up with amnesia. She's a junior in high school with no memories past the age of twelve. Her 'rescuer' is James Larkin. Her boyfriend is Ace Zuckerman. Her best friend is Will. Her father. These are the people in her life trying to tell her who she is, who she was, what she's like, what she does. But everything feels off for Naomi. Nothing feels right. Everything feels different, feels weird, feels foreign. Her boyfriend? She doesn't know what she ever saw in him. Her best friend? Well, he knows too much, expects too much, hopes too much, needs too much. The only people she feels comfortable with are the ones that didn't know her before her accident.

Can Naomi find out who she is? Who she really is? In the midst of these identity crises, Naomi fluctuates on who she wants to be with, who she likes, who she loves, who she's attracted to. [But it's more than that. Her hobbies, her interests, her likes and dislikes...they've changed.] This isn't the story of one boy and one girl. It's the story of a girl who 'feels' several different personas and find potential love interests with each persona she adopts. Which one is really her? Who does her heart really belong to?

So I'd say this is a story all about identity. All about choices. About being authentic. About being yourself. About not being afraid of changes.

I enjoyed this one. But I didn't love, love, love it. I had a few problems with it. But overall, I'd say it was a good reading experience.

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Yeomans, Ellen. 2007. Rubber Houses.

Verse novel. A family about to be in crisis. We see the before, during, and after shots of a tragedy. Kit, our narrator, has a younger brother, Buddy, who is quickly diagnosed as dying of cancer. (I believe they name it as cancer.) Every emotion describable can be found in Rubber Houses.

Here is one of our narrator Kit's early poems:

What If I Tried

and let go just a little,
stayed in this
warm kitchen, ate another cracker,
sipped more cocoa,
ignored my homework,
just for a night?
What if I tried
and let go just a little,
forgot my GPA, my class rank,
popped some corn?
What if I tried
and let go just a little,
read a magazine,
soaked in the tub,
worried less about the future,
took care of just now?
What if I tried to defy my nature?
Would the world stop spinning?
What if I tried, just for a night?

Here is the "after" portrait:

What If I Cried

and let go just a little,
stayed here in this
warm kitchen, actually ate something
sobbed if I needed to,
released some tension,
just for a night.
What if I cried
and let go just a little,
remembered myself, my old life,
wallowed a bit?
What if I cried
and let go just a little,
read a magazine,
soaked in the tub,
worried less about the future,
took care of just now.
What if I tried to defy my nature?
Would my parents pull themselves together or
would whatever is left of us fall all part?
What if I cried, just for a night?

I thought the book was good. Some of the poems were just beautiful. Very powerful.

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Fullerton, Alma. 2007. Walking on Glass.

Verse novel. A teen boy struggling emotionally with the failed suicide attempt of his mother. He found her. He got help. But the 'help' now consists of his mother being on life support. Not much of a save in his opinion. Father and son falling apart. Not turning towards the other. Each alone. Each confused.

The first poem:

Just to Let You Know

I begin this
under protest.

The further you read,
the more you invade my mind.

Take something from me
I don't want to give.

My thoughts.

You will enter a place
I don't want to be.

My conscience.

The second poem:

Journals

Writing a journal
for some shrink
won't make me
feel better.
It won't change
what happened.
It'll just make me think,
and I don't want to think.
Mom thought too much.
Look where it got her.

Obviously this is an "issue" or "problem" novel. The language is concise, spare, powerful. The narrator is unhappy--and rightfully so. Your mother being for all accounts and purposes dead and hooked up on life support, your father so far in denial that he thinks his wife will get better--that she's still "alive", and your best friend turning into a monster are all good reasons not to be yourself, to be miserable, to be angsty.

Another perspective.

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Cameron, Peter. 2007. Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You.

This may be one of the hardest titles I'll ever review. The narrator is such a--I don't know how to phrase it politely--let's just say he's not nice and he's not likable. It's not that he's evil. It's just that Mr. Rogers' description of him as a "smug little **stard who doesn't know **it" is so perfectly true. He's arrogant. He's selfish. He's pompous. He just oozes "I'm too good to be in the same room with you" smugness. So I didn't enjoy one moment of this novel--well, except for the previously quoted confrontation between stepfather and stepson. So it is hard for me to evaluate the writing of Peter Cameron. It really is. An apt allegory might be watching a star you don't like dancing on "Dancing With The Stars." It's hard to separate the dance steps from the personality or persona of the star. Same with "American Idol." There are some contestants you take an almost instant dislike to. Every time they perform, every time they speak is painful to you. These are the kind of people that you cheer loudly when they're voted off. You clap your hands and scream and do a little dance of joy. (Did I just reveal too much there???)

So if you're looking for an unbiased review of Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You, you're going to have to look elsewhere this time. I am afraid anything I have to say will be tainted by my hatred for the narrator. (I do not in anyway equate the narrator with the author though.) Authors in many cases create characters--sometimes even narrators--that you're meant to dislike. I don't know that that is the case here. But certainly in Boy Toy and Touching Snow and Before, After, and Somebody In Between, there are characters that are there for you to hate. They're despicable. It's a natural response.

The first line--and I liked the first line I must admit--

The day my sister, Gillian, decided to pronounce her name with a hard G was, coincidentally, the same day my mother returned, early and alone, from her honeymoon. Neither of these things surprised me.

See, isn't that a great beginning? Nothing to dislike yet. But as the narrative goes on, his true nature is revealed. His biases, his prejudices, his jerky attitude is revealed. This guy really and truly thinks he's the center of the universe and that he's better--smarter--than anyone else--well most people anyway.

The simple plot line of this one is that our narrator, James Sveck, is eighteen working in his mom's art gallery, and trying to figure out if he's going to college in the fall. He's been accepted. He's been assigned a roommate. But he hates his peers. He hates young people. He doesn't think his generation has anything to offer him. He doesn't want to be friends with anyone. He doesn't want to fall in love with anyone. He doesn't want to talk to anyone. He doesn't want to be in the same room with anyone. He's anti-social. He's "too-good" to mix with his "own." He prefers the company of older--much older--people. Which typically, I'm all for. But not in this case. I like young people realizing that the older generation has something to offer. But not at the expense of being so smugly spoiled that you can't *bear* to be in the same room with someone under the age of thirty or twenty-five. He doesn't think college will do him any good. He doesn't think teachers, classes, have anything to offer him. He thinks he can be a self-taught man. He doesn't need anyone to succeed. To borrow a phrase from Lola, "He can do anything that's everything all on his own." What this teen needs is a reality check. He needs someone to put him in his place. He needs Dr. Phil. He needs to live in the Dr. Phil house for a while. (In case you're not familiar. He has a house filled with cameras that he puts his most difficult guests in. For example there might be six or eight guests there for "newlywed bootcamp" or the prejudice/hate group he has. He'll house people that theoretically hate each other right there next to each other. And let them work out their mutual hatred.)

This is one of the blurbs from the back cover:

"Not since The Catcher in the Rye has a novel captured the deep and almost physical ache of adolescent existential sadness as trenchantly as the perfectly titled Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You. You don’t have to be eighteen to relate to James Dunfour Sveck and his sense of alienation from a world he doesn’t understand, nor to be profoundly moved by his story. Told with compassion, insight, humor, and hope, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You deserves to be read by readers of all ages for years to come. I would have loved it as a teenager, and I love it now." —James Howe, author of The Misfits

Perhaps that is why I'm not a fan. I don't like Catcher in the Rye and I don't like existential nonsense in fiction or nonfiction.

It has received at least two starred reviews. And I'm sure it will be on many best lists. Just not my own.

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