Two for Tuesday!! Past Perfect and Wanderlove reviews

I have a treat for you today - two reviews for the price of one!! Meaning you only have to listen to me once. HA! Why am I doing this, you ask? Doesn't each author deserve her own moment in the spotlight? Well, er, yes, but this is going to save me (and you) time, and don't we all love saving time these days? Thing is, I read these two books within a week of each other, and they're so similar, I think it will benefit both to do a little compare and contrast. That way if you like one, you'll know exactly what to go for next. Sounds good, eh? So here are our two books:

Title:Past Perfect
Author: Leila Sales
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: October 4, 2011

An abbreviated Goodreads summary about Past Perfect:

All Chelsea wants to do this summer is hang out with her best friend and finally get over Ezra, the boy who broke her heart. But when Chelsea shows up for her summer job at Essex Historical Colonial Village (yes, really), it turns out Ezra’s working there too. Maybe Chelsea should have known better than to think that a historical reenactment village could help her escape her past. But with Ezra all too present, and her new crush seeming all too off limits, all Chelsea knows is that she’s got a lot to figure out about love.





Title:Wanderlove
Author: Kirsten Hubbard
Publisher: Random House Children's books
Release Date: March 13, 2012

An abbreviated summary about Wanderlove: 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be a global vagabond. In a quest for independence, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America— one filled with middle-aged tourists and fanny packs. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his  humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path. Bria's a good girl trying to go bad. Rowan's a bad boy trying to stay good. As they travel across a panorama of Mayan villages and hostels plagued with jungle beasties, they discover what they've got in common: both seek to leave behind the old versions of themselves. But Bria comes to realize she can't run forever, no matter what Rowan says.

Now these two books may sound quite different, but they actually have a lot in common. Both books:

1. Are set over the summer
2. Are about second romances/loves.
3. Have deliciously witty and engaging voices that had me smiling the whole time.
4. Have unusual settings - one a colonial America re-enactment site, the other Central America. I found myself wanting to visit both.
5. Have a swoon-worthy male love interest.
6. Hooked me within the first 2 paragraphs.
7. Both authors share a personal interest/hobby through their story, and both left me thinking how cool those interests were.
8. Include a theme wherein the MC has to get over a past love who didn't show her the respect she deserves.

Some differences about the two:
1. Wanderlove includes some very lovely drawings by the author, Kirsten Hubbard.
2. Past Perfect has a slightly younger main character than Wanderlove (16 rather than 18). I think that Wanderlove will really hit home for those looking for something in the "new" adult category.
3. We don't hear much about Bria's friends back home in Wanderlove, but the friendship between Chelsea and Fiona (love that name, btw) in Past Perfect includes just enough detail to make it stick in your head while not becoming an obtrusive subplot.
4. Wanderlove was maybe a little on the long side. I didn't have any problems getting through it in 2 days, but I think it could have been tightened a bit more or a scene here or there nixed. I'm all about condensed writing these days (after trimming my own WIP), and I'm learning to appreciate shorter manuscripts.
5. I love both covers, but I have no idea how the cover for Past Perfect fits with the story. *shrug*

I DO DO DO recommend both of these reads, but if I had to pick one over the other... ah, forget it, I won't do that. You'll just have to read both and make your own call! :)

Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Goodreads summary:
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.


Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.



I've heard conflicting reviews on this book, and after reading it, I can see why. I'm conflicted. Beth Revis is a good story teller, weaving elements of sci-fi, romance, and mystery together into one cohesive plot that really makes you stop and think, could this happen? Would a world such as this really be a bad thing? I love stories that can give me that "wow" factor, and Across the Universe did. But at the same time I can see why some had a hard time with it.

The story is told in alternating points of view, from that of Amy, the girl who goes into the cryo-chamber and that of Elder, future leader of the world (inside the spaceship) where Amy wakes up. Using this alternating POV, we get to see what's happening while Amy is asleep, which is helpful. It also helps us when the mystery is presented because it allows us to see things that neither Amy or Elder can't. But at the same time, the double POV slows the story down immensely. Much of it is backstory and world building - in Elder's world (as we see how the ship/society works) and then in Amy's world (as we see her thoughts as to what her life was like before). Unfortunately all of this made the story drag. I wanted Amy to wake up already so that the story could begin - and she does - on page 70. Once Amy is thawed though, the book does take off, and as with any good mystery, I wanted to keep going until I had figured it all out.

There's another aspect to this book that I think will have people divided, and those are the plot holes and plausibility issues. The science in this book is really one where you have to just kind of take it in faith that it could happen.... someday. But looking at it from today's perspective (and as a scientist), I was cringing at some scenes. A lot of it seemed to be there just to elicit a "fear" or "shock" response in the reader because the why and the how of it all (the genetics and the breeding program) just didn't make a whole lot of sense. In fact sometimes it was downright laughable. There was also one central plot element that is completely wrong, and you don't need to know a whole lot about science (you just need to watch CSI) to figure it out. There were other plot holes, such as the presence of a very young girl who is injecting rabbits at one point (even though we're told early on that Elder is the youngest person on the ship), and there are loose ends that aren't tied up (like in the beginning a big deal is made of the fact that Amy and her family are frozen one year too early, yet this is never brought up again). There are other plausibility issues in the story too, but let me stop there because I think you get the picture. Looking back, I see so many areas where Revis could have avoided digging herself into a plausibility grave that I wonder how much effort she put into thinking things through. Granted, the world building was pretty good; I had an immediate sense of what the ship looked like and how it ran and I marveled at some of the technology just as Amy did. The premise of the whole story was phenomenal; I admire the idea itself. The characters were believable, and I felt emotionally caught up in everything that Amy was going through. It's just the delivery of the science that was off.

To put it in perspective, let's talk a little bit about another book/movie which I know you've all heard of - Jurassic Park. I love Jurassic Park. A couple years after it came out, I also read  a book entitled, The Science Behind Jurassic Park, or How to Build a Dinosaur, by Rob DeSalle and David Lindley, in which JP is picked apart one nucleotide (or claw) at a time. I remember after reading this book that I felt a little let down. Not a lot, but a little. It takes a good imagination to figure out how to build a dinosaur, and keeping in mind that JP was written over 20 years ago, it was pretty darn inventive - even though the whole concept was a wash from the get-go. There were ways in which Crighton could have made JP more believable and in line with what is scientifically possible, BUT (and here is the big but) while the science in JP may have been lacking, the story itself dug at a theme that is at the core of humanity. Across the Universe parallels JP in that the science could have been better (a whole lot better), but it's still a good story, and the themes in it are pretty much universal. And I guess that's where I sit, glad that I was given an enjoyable reading experience, but a little let down that it couldn't have been done better.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Does a book ever come to you in whispers? As in, you've heard the name over and over again on forums, in book discussions, etc., yet you've never read (or even glimpsed) a review of it? You don't know what it's about, but something about the book keeps whispering to you, "pick me up, pick me up". This was The Knife of Never letting Go for me. I know where I first heard of it - on a forum discussing The Hunger Games, yet I knew nothing about it when I requested it from the library. I had no idea what I was getting into when I read the first paragraph. I must say, I kind of like how that turned out, and so I give to you now the first few lines of The Knife of Never Letting Go without any forehand plot knowledge:

The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say. About anything. 

"Need a poo, Todd."

"Shut up, Manchee."

"Poo. Poo, Todd."

"I said, shut it."

Haha. Is that not awesome? I don't think I could ever do a dog's voice so well (yes, Manchee is one of my favorite characters, poo and all).  If you want to experience the rest of the book without any clue what it's about like I did, then stop reading right now. I enjoyed figuring it all out on my own, and while some books aren't very good for doing that, this one is.  It gets going at a very fast pace, and the mystery will keep you GLUED to those pages. I encourage you to try reading it that way.

BUT I get that some people need to know what a book is about before they'll invest time in it, so for those readers, here's a Goodreads blurb (and my review that follows):

Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

Intrigued? I thought so. Here's a little more info:

1. It's a sci-fi. I was not expecting that, and I think that's part of the brilliance of it. We're introduced to a backwards talking, illiterate MC and his country-hick dog. He tends sheep, yet, the book is set on a different planet with aliens and futuristic inventions. It reminded me of all those outposts that are seen in the old Star Trek TV show, and I loved that aspect of it.

2. It almost reads like a MG. The MC is about 13-14 years old, and there isn't a whole lot of sugary romance in it even though there is a girl. It's very much like an adventure story with one exciting thing happening immediately after another. But, there's a little bit of swearing (or implications of swearing, F'ing) and some references to unseemly sexual acts and definitely a lot of violence. I do want my son to read it at some point because I think it'd be right up his alley, but I think he'll have to wait another year or two yet.

3. The main character is rich and complex. Todd makes mistakes (lots of them), and even though I found myself frustrated with him many times, I was still rooting for him through the whole thing. I loved his dimensionality. Some of the supporting characters on the other hand are a little predictable or cliche. There's the uncle/proxy dad who loves Todd and would do anything to protect him,and there are many stupid townspeople whose ignorance is irritable at best. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately for them) these characters don't stick around for long, and we're left with Todd and Violet and Todd's dog Manchee. "Poo, Todd." "Squirrel, Todd, squirrel." "Todd?" Dang, I loved that dog.

4. The world building is sheer brilliance. Thinking back on it, I really don't see a single plot hole anywhere. Even though the characters were a bit mad, there was logic and reason to how their madness unfolded, if that makes any sense. I could see why the events happened as they did, and I didn't have to stretch my imagination about anything where the world building was concerned.

5. As I mentioned before, the pacing was fast and exciting. For a 500 page book, I was expecting it would take several days for me to get through. In truth, I was done in about a day (9 hours total). I will say that I was a bit tired of characters who just wouldn't die already. Like how many times are we going to encounter this particular evil person and leave him lying in the dust with his eyeballs on the ground only for him to come back again 50 pages later (eyeballs intact)? That got a little frustrating, but just a little because in between those parts I was trying to figure out what the MC didn't know but everyone else seemed to. Ness was very good at not giving away all the answers at once, and I think that reading it without any forehand knowledge made it all the more interesting in that respect. Notice that I haven't really given away anything here, so you can still read it and experience some of that the way I did. :)

So, there you have it. Obviously, I really enjoyed the book, and I'll be moving on to the next two in the series. But I'll leave you with a question - are there any books you read that you had no clue what they were about when you picked them up? And would you recommend them to be read that way? Leave your recommendations, please!

Review: Chasing Alliecat

Goodreads summary: Sadie Lester has been dumped with relatives for the summer. Boredom seems inevitable in her small Minnesota town until she meets Allie—a spiky-haired off-road biker with incredible grace and speed. Training for the upcoming bike race, Allie leads Sadie and cute fellow cyclist Joe up and down Mount Kato—an exhilarating rush that pushes their limits. The fun ends abruptly when they stray off the trail and find a priest, badly beaten and near death. After calling for help, Allie mysteriously disappears from their lives.

Just like the trash littering the beautiful river bluffs, there's something foul afoot. Creepy rednecks are prowling the woods, the same ones who ran Sadie and Allie off the road one night. It's not until the day of the big race that Sadie finally learns the startling truth about Allie, her connection to the priest, and what drove her into hiding.

Disclaimer:
I have never gone mountain biking.
I haven't walked through the MN woods in many years.
I have never been to Mankato, MN. 
Although I'm from MN, I'm a city dweller and will likely remain so for the rest of my years.

And yet, reading Chasing AllieCat, all of the scents, sounds, and sights associated with the woods and small town MN made me feel very much at home. I'd like to say that it brought back childhood memories, but alas, it wasn't even that. I grew up near a lake in central MN (several different lakes actually as we moved multiple times), and my childhood experiences really weren't the same as these characters'.  I'm not sure how to explain why this book gave me the feeling of coming home, but it did. Does that mean you have to be from MN or from a small town to enjoy this book? Absolutely not. But, I think that it did enhance the experience for me.

What I loved most about this book was the way it captured those rare magical moments where you meet someone and you just "click". A few simple words, and it's as though you've been friends forever. That's the kind of friendship that occurs between Sadie and Allie. It's special, and it's the whole theme of the book and something that I think a lot of us (teens especially) can relate to. The characters were well done, and Sadie's LI, Joe, was a "real" guy, which was refreshing.

As for the plot itself, it starts off kind of slow. We're shown hints of something being "off" with Allie, but are left guessing what it is. We're also given hints of impending danger, like Allie and Sadie almost getting run off the road while biking and Sadie's dog going psycho around some strangers. It all kind of builds until the middle of the book when the friends find a body at the bottom of a ravine and then Allie suddenly disappears. Those parts of the story were wonderfully crafted and held my interest. I was eager to figure out what was going on and why Allie was connected to body and why she had disappeared and why everyone was lying to Sadie. I was caught up in the story at that point. And then... something changed.

To tell you where the story went from there would be a too much of a spoiler, but I will say that it wasn't delivered with as much finesse as I thought it could have been. In essence, it felt... dramatic, but in a soap opera sort of way rather than in a tear-jerker sort of way. Parts of it felt contrived, and the antagonist's actions didn't follow any sort of logic. Then again, I suppose I'm not the type of person who would do what the antagonist did, so maybe I don't know how they would behave.

So although the ending niggled with me a little bit, I still enjoyed the story overall. I loved the characters, the setting and learning about mountain biking made me feel like I should get off my rump and hop on a two wheeler! Haha... just kidding... I think.

Chasing AllieCat is Rebecca Fjelland Davis's second YA novel, though she also has several children's books published. CA has been named a Junior Library Guild selection for 2011. You can visit her blog here.

You can purchase Chasing AllieCat from Amazon.
Or Barnes and Noble.
 

2010 Reading list summary

I'm fairly certain that I won't have time to knock off one more book this year, so I've decided to go ahead and do a summary of the 76 books I read for 2010. Didn't quite reach my goal of 100 books, but since I did reach another more important goal (that I'll talk about later in the week), I'm still feeling pretty good about this number.

So here's the rundown:
Of the books I read, 51 could be classified as young adult, 25 as children's or middle grade (see the complete list here). I didn't read any adult books this year. That's right, ZERO ADULT BOOKS. I'm quite certain this will change in 2011 as I have one adult book that will be released in March that I'm really looking forward to. But aside from that, I'd like to note the one adult book I tried to read, Anne Rice's Angel Time, I couldn't get into! That's right. I just couldn't get engaged in it, which is really weird considering how much I've loved Anne Rice in the past.

More categories:
Paranormal/Fantasy  - 26
Dystopian - 4
Historical - 4
Contemporary - 42

After looking at this list, I'm actually shocked. I write paranormal, so what's up with all the contemporary?? Obviously my tastes have changed of late, not sure if my writing preference ever will but it's something to think about.

Most read authors:
1. Rick Riordan -8
2. Laurie Halse Anderson -5
3. Sarah Dessen - 4
I had many doubles listed and I'm sure that I'll be picking up more of their books in the future. Of particular  note are Jaclyn Moriarty, Melina Marchetta, Courtney Summers and Meg Rosoff. In the children's category I'd love to pick up another book by Patricia Riley Giff.

Books with serious issues that are highly recommended:
1. Smack by Melvin Burgess - drug addiction
2. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson - anorexia
3. 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher - suicide
4. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen - rape

Best of:
Best paranormal (for concept) Peeps by Scot Westerfeld
Best paranormal (for writing) Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Best contemporary (most moving) If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Best off-beat contemporary - Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams

Strongest female protagonist - Nya from Blue Fire by Janice Hardy
Male crush - Mason from Lighter Side of Life and Death by CK Kelly Martin
Favorite female character - Emily from Dreaming of Amelia and The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty

Best overall YA (too addictive to put down) - City of Glass by Cassandra Clare. It is really necessary to read the first two in this series to get to the third. I found the second to be kind of slow, but it's worth it to get to the last book in this series.

Best overall Middle Grade/Children's - The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan. I chose this one because I think it's most attractive to kids, but Holes by Louis Sachar comes in a close second.

I can't leave this post without declaring my goal for next year. Since I may be taking classes in the spring, I'm going to have to trim my reading down a bit. I'll be happy if I manage to read 50 books, though I'm going to hope for more of course. Hope this post gives you some ideas to put on your own reading list for 2011.

Review - Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Goodreads summary: Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist - almost. 




Have you ever wanted to visit a country or a particular city because of a book you've read or a movie you've seen? This happens to me A LOT. I have a very strong desire to see Italy because of Mario Puzo's The Godfather and Anne Rice's Cry to Heaven. New Orleans? Yep, that was Anne's fault too. Elvis got me hooked on Hawaii, and as for Africa, well, I have a college professor and lion researcher to thank for that one. Now there's a new place to add to my list. Australia. 

Unlike Ty from Stolen, I have no desire to actually live in the Sandy Desert, but to visit... now that I could handle. I love books that take me to places I've never been and allow me to become so immersed in that world that I feel like I have to see it for myself. Stolen is one of those books. The desert sands, the flora, the fauna, the hot, hot days and the cold nights. Seeing so many stars you feel like you're sleeping under a blanket of sparkling lights. And the solitude. The silence. Christopher took me there - and... *weeps a bit* I want to go back!!

I got the feeling that Gemma does too, and that's the really startling thing about this book. Gemma (God, I love that name) gets kidnapped by Ty, a guy who's kind of gorgeous, very lonely, obviously a little screwed up, and doesn't want anything except Gemma's love. Gemma is a little out of place with her friends, feels a bit like a third wheel where her parents are concerned, and like any young girl is eager for some attention. Mix the two together and you have the perfect ingredients for a YA Stockholm syndrome which Lucy Christopher pulls off like a seasoned pro - even though this is her debut novel. The characterization is exceptional, and I loved, loved the ending because it emblazoned the characters into my mind. I won't give away what happens, but I can tell you it was not what I expected. Or wanted. It was real. It was gooood.

Other things that I loved about the book:

1. The camel. I know you're thinking, what?? But yeah, I have a thing for them. They just seem like such lovable, docile creatures, and it's so unique to see a camel in a YA story. Nomes is probably shaking her head at me right now, but if you'd only ever seen cows grazing along the road you'd think it was kind of cool too. Although camel puke, ew, don't want to go there.

2. Ty's character. Yes, he was hot in a Crocodile Dundee fashion. Yes, I was sort of wishing that Gemma would put down her guard and just hug him, but Christopher also made him realistic. He gets mad. He gets a little nuts, just like you think a kidnapper should. And I loved that about him because this book isn't supposed to be about the girl falling for the psychopath and getting a happily ever after. We see way too much of that in YA these days (me be guilty of this- not the psychopath part, the happily ever after ). Ty was true to himself and it was refreshing and believable. Thumbs up to Christopher for making the hot guy a little unlikeable.

3. I can't leave this review without mentioning the point of view. Second person. Yikes! You have to have a reason for doing this POV, and you have to be able to do it well because it's very disconcerting. Christopher pulls it off. The format, Gemma writing a letter to Ty after the fact, fit in neatly. If you ever want to read a second person POV just for the experience, I'd recommend this book over any other. 

Final score: 5 stars.


And now, to entice you, some pictures I dug up that fit well with the book:

The camel:

 

This is sort of what I imagine the separates to look like.

The Sandy Desert.

Spinifex.

Review - Holes by Louis Sachar

Summary: There is no lake at Camp Green Lake, but there are holes - lots of them. Digging holes is supposed to be a character building sentence for the camp's wayward boys, but what Stanley Yelnats discovers is that the boys are actually digging them for a very different reason.  But what?

So after watching this movie last night, I decided to do a mini-review to encourage everyone to read this book. It's middle grade and it's about 12 years old now, but it is such a great lesson in plot development that I think every writer ought to take a couple hours to devour it.


What really grabs me at first here is the premise - it is so simple. Digging holes? How can that turn into a story? But it does, and not only does it turn into a story, but multiple stories that somehow all become woven together. You really don't see it at first when you begin to read. You find out about the holes, and then a bit about Stanley's family history, and then a bit about the history of Green Lake. But how does it all connect together? As you're trying to figure that out, we've got Stanley, who's a bit of a wimp and he's trying to get along with the other, somewhat meaner boys who've been sentenced to Camp Green Lake. He manages to make a few friends - and enemies (tension people!) - and then something happens that propels the story to its ending. I won't tell you what, but once you get to that point, you come to realize that everything you were told prior to that was included for A REASON. Why do I stress that word? Because up until then, you're not really sure where all of this is going and you may even be questioning whether Sachar was just including these things for character development, but he wasn't. And that's the beauty of this book. Every element is connected. Every element is necessary and every scene moves the book forward to that pivotal point. And the fact that you don't see it coming just shows Sachar's brilliance as a writer.

I wish I could dig into Sachar's brain to figure out how he came up with such a plot. Where did he start, how did he plan it all out, or was there a plan? It's all just so brilliantly done, I WANT his brain! And then, THEN,  you add to this plot genius great character development. Stanley and his friends and his family are all unique - his father is an inventor who has been trying for the past few years to come up with a cure for foot odor! And even that little character element has consequences later on for the story. On top of character development you have simple but effective prose and a memorable voice. And just to make it even more beautiful, there's a great lesson buried in there that gives you that "feel good" moment at the end. Ok, I think I've raved enough. Obviously, I've given this book a score of 5 for both writing and reader's interest. 


Other little things that made me smile:

Stanley's last name is his first name spelled backwards!

There's a cute little song in there that also gives you that round robin, 'it's all connected' feeling at the end.

The screenplay is also written by Sachar and is an enjoyable family film though it is sort of boy-centered - which is a good thing. If you have boys, make them read the book first and then watch the movie. My son loved it!

The yellow spotted lizards freaked me out and had my daughter (5yrs old) covering her eyes. How can anyone stand to live in the dessert with such freaky creatures running around?


Ok, I'm done with exclamation points now. :)

The Year of Secret Assignments - by Jaclyn Moriarty

Before getting into the review I want to take a moment to direct your attention to the end of this post, where I'll talk about a fun little "special assignment" related to the book. So even if you get bored halfway through (you won't will you?), remember to go to the end to have your curiosity quenched.


Back cover blurb:
Three Girls. Three boys. Two rival Schools. This could get messy.

The Ashbury-Brookfield pen pal program is designed to bring together the two rival schools in a spirit of harmony and "the Joy of the Envelope." But when Cassie, Lydia, and Emily send their first letters to Matthew, Charlie and Sebastian, things don't go quite as planned. What starts out as a simple letter exchange soon leads to secret missions, false alarms, lock picking, mistaken identities, and an all-out war between the schools -- not to mention some really excellent kissing.

Reader's crit: My first Jaclyn Moriarty book, and let's just say, I'm hooked. It was truly awesome. Cassie, Lydia and Emily are the type of friends you wish you had in high school. They'll do anything for each other - these are the types of friendships were the kind that makes you go ahhhh... The guys, well two of them anyway, were tough but sweet. I wanted to fly over to Australia and take them home with me. The characters were so colorful (even the parents!!), and most of the book is just hilariously funny. The best chuckle I had was Emily's Dad's inquiry into his missing wine. I won't say anything more so I don't spoil it, but I loved, LOVED, the way it was presented. Poor Dad. :) But the book is not all fun and games either though. I shed a few tears at one point in the novel. Yes, I'm a bit of a cb as this was not the type of book where you would expect to get all weepy, and the fact that it did make me feel that way is one reason for it's high score.
It made me laugh and smile and cry, and I wanted to finish it all in one night but I was just too tired to do so. Score = 5.

Writer's crit: As mentioned this was my first Moriarty experience, so I was a little unprepared for the format of the book. It's done mostly in a series of letters and diary entries and jumps among the three female characters and later also with the male characters. It took me a while to get into the style, and I had to go back and remind myself who was who, but once I got into it that confusion went away and I really enjoyed the writing. The characterization, as mentioned, was stellar. The plot was a little on the vague side at first. It takes a while to understand what the book is about, but the voice of each of the characters is so fresh that I didn't mind drifting for a bit. I wanted to learn more about these three friends and what they meant to each other and eventually I did, so it was all well and good. Taking everything into consideration, I understand why the author chose the format she did and why it was told in the manner that it was. So even though I had those little moments of confusion and where is this going?, I can't think of how it could have been improved upon because it all came together in the end. Score = 5.

Now for something a little different. This book was given to me by my good friend Nomes, who is a very big J. Moriarty fan, and I know that she would love it if I were to spread the word about all things Moriarty. Soooo I have decided to do a book chain! This means that I have given the book to another good friend who has taken up the "secret assignment"* to read it, take a picture of it outside her favorite Manhattan restaurant, do a mini-review, and then pass it on to someone else. Hopefully the trend will continue. I have even set up a special blog for the book chain so that we can track where it goes and read all the reviews. If this sounds interesting to you, you can sign up to be a part of the book chain. Just click on the link here and it'll take you to the blog for further instructions.

P.S. I'll be having a blog contest soon and I think I'll be going on one of those "extra points" systems, so old followers will get 2 points, new followers 1 etc. So if you find my blog interesting, follow now for that extra entry point. :)

Review - Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers

Goodreads summary:

When "Perfect" Parker Fadley starts drinking at school and failing her classes, all of St. Peter's High goes on alert. How has the cheerleading captain, girlfriend of the most popular guy in school, consummate teacher's pet, and future valedictorian fallen so far from grace?

Parker doesn't want to talk about it. She'd just like to be left alone, to disappear, to be ignored. But her parents have placed her on suicide watch and her counselors are demanding the truth. Worse, there's a nice guy falling in love with her and he's making her feel things again when she'd really rather not be feeling anything at all.

Nobody would have guessed she'd turn out like this. But nobody knows the truth.

Something horrible has happened, and it just might be her fault.

Reader's crit: Having already read Summer's second book, Some Girls Are (review here), I was prepared to fall in love with this newbie author all over again, and well, CUTB fell just short of my expectations. This is partly my fault because I read half of the book during the day and then had to go to bed, but I was so curious as to what had actually happened to Parker that I read the ending before turning out the light. BBBAAAADDD! I cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye that I will never do that again! Basically, I ruined it for myself because after I knew what had happened, I kept thinking "Why on earth would she do that?" and it didn't make sense to me until I read the rest of the book. Then it did make sense and I did buy it, but not as easily as I would have if I hadn't skipped ahead.

The other thing with CUTB was that the character wasn't really all that likable, which isn't always a necessity, but I kept asking myself if she was normally this way before the tragic thing occurred or was she always a bitch? Eventually the answer turns out to be that she kind of was always a bitch, and so I had to question whether I really cared if she overcame her problem.

Things that I really liked about the story itself - the guys. Ah, yes. Jake is just yummy and doesn't know when to give up, and Chris? Well, who doesn't love a guy who's still pining over his lost love, even if you're wondering why he liked her in the first place. And of course the voice and the writing, but more on that below. Now, you might think based on this review that I didn't like CUTB, but that's not the case. It just didn't hit the high expectations that I had having read Summer's other novel (review here) *push, nudge read the review* which I gave my highest score. I would still recommend CUTB because parts of it, especially the dialogue, were thoroughly enjoyable. It's worth picking up, especially if you *cough sputter cough* don't read the ending first. Score = 4.

Writer's crit: What I really like about Summer's writing is her voice. It stands out in the same vein that Laurie Halse Anderson's voice stands out. It's not the same as LHA by any means, it's just that it's distinctive, fresh and totally unique to this writer. I really enjoyed the dialogue, and the way that even though the story arc focuses around cheerleaders and their jock boyfriends, it's not at all cliche. As I mentioned above, I didn't really like the main character much. The problem I think is that I didn't see the character growing or changing, which is in sharp contrast to Summer's other book, SGA, where the main character grows by leaps and bounds. I didn't get the same sense of 'I want to change' from Parker. Like SGA, the ending seemed rather abrupt, but at the same time I liked that Parker and Jake didn't ride off into the sunset together. One thing I'd like to point out is Summer's courage in doing unlikable main characters. It didn't work so well for me here, but it did in SGA, and I do give her credit for trying. Also I have to give her credit for piquing my curiosity to the point where I had to read ahead. Overall writing score, weighted for voice, 4.5

Book Review - Fragile Eternity #3 of the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr

Goodreads summary:
Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone—but that was before Aislinn. She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen.

Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who'd always terrified her—but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she'd ever imagined.
In Melissa Marr's third mesmerizing tale of Faerie, Seth and Aislinn struggle to stay true to themselves and each other in a milieu of shadowy rules and shifting allegiances, where old friends become new enemies and one wrong move could plunge the Earth into chaos. 

Reader's review:  Boy, this is a hard one. I've never done a book review for a third book in a series, and I'm finding that what to say and what not to say is far more challenging than I thought it would be. Since the books in this series need to be read in order for them to make sense, then I guess it all boils down to one question: If you've already read #1 and #2, should you go for #3? I'm going to give a hesitant yes with this one. The world Marr creates is one that I thoroughly enjoyed in the first book, and with this third installment of the series we come back to that - more so than is seen in Ink Exchange. Her writing is just beautiful and I kept finding myself lost in all the splendid and beautiful details of the faerie world. This book again is about choices and about deceit and mostly about what it means to love. I enjoyed the conflict from each viewpoint and the ending, while not what I expected, will resonate with younger readers. There's a different sort of love triangle in Fragile Eternity than those most commonly found in other YA books, it's a conflict not between loving two guys, but between loving one while lusting for the other. Yet it's not in anyway made trivial. Again, I'd have to say that it's worth it to read the third book and sometime this year - after I get through my other two-foot high stack of books-  I'll probably pick up the fourth book just to see how it all turned out.
Reader's score 4.

Writer's review: If you love beautiful prose, then this book is definitely for you. Marr's talent for description is out of this world, and I think it was this that really pushed me to keep reading. The descriptions of winter and summer meeting and making love was done so vividly (and differently even though it was seen multiple times) - I loved it. And I love all things flowery, viney, and earthy so I was in heaven during most of the book. I've heard that Wicked Lovely is being made into a movie and will probably see it just for the world-building alone.

What slowed me down a bit was the faerie politics - and believe me there's a lot of it. Keeping it all straight - the motivations, thoughts and feelings of each faerie king/queen/consort/mortal was probably the hardest part of this book, and a lot of it was done by telling rather than showing which made it all the more difficult. But, when you're dealing with characters whose actions and thoughts don't always mesh, I can see why (some of) this was necessary. Unfortunately the groundwork for all the politics occurred in the first half of the book. Nothing exciting really happens until about the midpoint, so I can see why some might give up on it. I'm one of those readers who has to finish a book once I've invested some time in it, and I'm glad that I did because I loved how the ending sets stuff up for the third book. Score: 4

The Shifter review and Blue Fire contest

The very talented Janice Hardy is having a contest for her second book in the Healing Wars Trilogy, entitled Blue Fire. If you haven't read the first book, The Shifter, then you seriously must correct this unfortunate mistake. I was going to do a short summary of The Shifter, then thought, what the heck, might as well do a full blown review.

Nya is an orphan struggling for survival in a city crippled by war. She is also a Taker—with her touch, she can heal injuries, pulling pain from another person into her own body. But unlike her sister, Tali, and the other Takers who become Healers' League apprentices, Nya's skill is flawed: She can't push that pain into pynvium, the enchanted metal used to store it. All she can do is shift it into another person, a dangerous skill that she must keep hidden from forces occupying her city. If discovered, she'd be used as a human weapon against her own people. 

Rumors of another war make Nya's life harder, forcing her to take desperate risks just to find work and food. She pushes her luck too far and exposes her secret to a pain merchant eager to use her shifting ability for his own sinister purposes. At first Nya refuses, but when Tali and other League Healers mysteriously disappear, she's faced with some difficult choices. As her father used to say, principles are a bargain at any price; but how many will Nya have to sell to get Tali back alive? 

Reader's review: I read The Shifter last fall as soon as it came out and I was duly impressed. Hardy has created a brave, strong-willed female character in a world that is totally unique. It was imaginative, creative and packed with suspense - one kept wondering just how was Nya going to get out of all this? And although it's a middle grade book, there were some hints at a coming romance - I have to say that I'm curious how that will play out. In all, it kept me reading straight through and I definitely plan to buy the sequel (if I don't win an ARC) *begs the ARC gods to have mercy*. Reader's score 4.5.


Writer's review. The Shifter is engaging from the very first words. Just to prove my point, here's the first paragraph:

Stealing eggs is a lot harder than stealing the whole chicken. With chickens, you just grab a hen, stuff her in a sack and, make your escape. But for eggs, you have to stick your hand under a sleeping chicken. Chickens don't like this. They wake all spooked and start pecking holes in your arm, or your face, if it's close. And they squawk something terrible. 

Don't you want to see what's going to happen now? I love this opening, and I have to admit I'm a tad jealous here. I wish that I could get my openings down as neatly as Janice does, but I usually go through 5-10 versions before I come across one that I sort of like. As for the rest of the writing, I only really have two nit picky things to tell you and these are really nit picky because honestly I can't think of anything else to say about it. The first was the explanatory pages that occurred in about chapter 2-3 that explained what the deal with the healing was and some of the stuff about the war and it's leaders. I understand that it was necessary in order for the reader to ground themselves in Nya's world, but not having read much in the genre, it felt just a little telly to me. The other thing was much further back in the book during a high action scene where I got just a little confused by all that was going on and had to re-read it 2-3 times before I finally figured it out. But, that's it, folks. The rest of the writing is fantastic. The characters are unique, the scenery is descriptive and I loved Nya's little sayings - I'd give you an example but I loaned the book to my sister so I don't have it here. But, they made me smile and I know they will you too. My writer's score = 4.5

Now that I have you all psyched to read The Shifter - go and buy it and then enter yourself for the ARC contest of it's sequel, Blue Fire.

Sarah Dessen trio

Some people love her, some people hate her. After having read three of her books in row, I guess that I kind of fall in the middle. Will I eagerly await her newest book with fangirl adoration? Probably not, but if I came across one of her books on sale I'd probably pick it up, especially if I had heard good things about it. So, without further ado, here are my reviews for Dreamland, The truth about Forever, and This Lullaby.

Dreamland. After her sister runs away from home, Caitlin is lost, not wanting to fill her shoes but not quite knowing how to forge her own path. She's looking for anything that will make her feel "special". Unfortunately what she finds is a guy who sweeps her off her feet with his magnetic, and dangerous, personality and then sweeps the rug out from under her. With Rogerson, Caitlin forgets about everything else in her life - friends, family and even herself. And that's when Rogerson gets scary.

The Truth About Forever. After her father passes away, Macy withdraws into herself, accepting the stoic love of her perfect boyfriend and the silent grief of her mother. But when her boyfriend goes away for "Brain Camp", she falls into a catering job with some fun-loving, chaotic characters who bring her out of her shell. Most notably is Wes, a boy with a past, an artist, someone she feels comfortable telling all her secrets to. As summer draws to an end, Macy wonders if the "break" from her boyfriend and her troubles was really just that.

Book Review - The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

This is my first middle grade review, and I know most of my followers are not into MG stuff, but this is an exception I think because the book is The Red Pyramid, the highly anticipated new series from author Rick Riordan of Percy Jackson fame. 


Summary from Goodreads: 

Since their mother’s death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.

One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them--Set--has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe--a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs. 

Reader's crit:  Ok, so here's the paradox. I had a hard time getting into this book and as I was reading it, some things just irked me *see below*, but at the same time I know that when the second book comes out I'll probably buy it. Now, I don't know if that's my book collector spirit taking control of me or what, but there you have it. Overall, I was rather disappointed with The Red Pyramid because I loved Percy Jackson so much and was so eager to check out a new series by him. My son LOVES Percy, and part of me was really excited because it takes a lot to get my son excited about books. In some ways I  think that the subject material (Egyptian mythology) is partly to blame. It's just a little bit harder to digest than the Greek Gods that we're all so familiar with - reading about them in Percy was like revisiting old friends. In The Red Pyramid, I had vague (really vague) memories of some of these Gods, and the mythology wasn't familiar to me at all. Things that I did like about the book - a kickass female protag, an african american male protag, the bonding between the sibs was real sweet, and the little animal sidekicks (a baboon and a cat goddess) were a hoot. Also, I was interested in the culture as a whole by the ending and I like that some things in the book were based on fact.

But there were some little things that irked me as a reader:
1. The female MC, Sadie is portrayed far too mature for her age. She's twelve, and she gets the hots for Anubis, a God who is said to look about 16. Now, I know what you're thinking, so what, right? When I was twelve I crushed over pop stars and stuff, so what's the difference? Well, the difference is that Riordan makes it seem like the relationship is possible, that the attraction is fully reciprocated and that just IRKED me. Maybe it's the parent in me that's stepping in here, and for my younger followers I apologize, but really? A twelve year old and a sixteen year old flirting with each other? *shivers*

2. Going along with Sadie acting too mature are her words: "I mean, I'd asked for the truth, but usually you don't actually get it, especially from guys." Ok, what twelve year old knows that much about men to say something like that? Unless I'm living under a rock. IRK!!

3. Over use of descriptions. There are a lot of strange creatures in this book, and yeah, I know that there were a lot of weird half-crocodile, half-lion things creeping around ancient Egypt. But did Riordan have to put them on every single page?? I couldn't keep track of them all, and it just got so redundant after awhile. It was like, oh, another strange creature to fight - how surprising. After 500 pages of it, it just got to be TOO MUCH.


4. Length - 500 pages for a MG book is rather long.


Reader's score: 3.5  If I hadn't been so enamored over Percy Jackson I would have opted to loan this from the library instead. And now that obsessive book collector thing is kicking in  *grumbles*.


Writer's crit: You're probably already getting that I'm not as crazy about this book as I was with Riordan's other work. The thing is, I think that Riordan really stumbled on a bit of luck when he thought up Percy Jackson - the story there is compelling. It's good. But when the story isn't as engaging, as it is here (and also with the 39 Clues, another series of his), then Riordan's weaknesses as a writer show through.

Problem #1. Set up. For a MG book, this one takes way too long to get into. By page 100, not a whole lot had really happened. Riordan does a lot of telling in the first chapter or two. New writers couldn't get away with that. 


Problem #2. POV. The story is told in alternating FP POV of the brother and sister. In retrospect, I can see why Riordan chose to do this because both kids end up having equal powers at the end, but in the beginning and middle of the book it was very distracting. Since both characters have a bit of snarkiness to them, it was often hard to remember who was speaking. This is bad for a kid's book when you have to really fight to keep the reader's attention, and I think the book probably would have been done better if it had been in third person. Then Riordan could have jumped between characters without the reader getting confused as to who was speaking. 


Problem #3. Excessive description, especially of the monsters that all seemed very much alike by the end. 


Problem #4. Confusion. Ok, so there were 5 major gods to keep track of, and their parents, and then there were about 4-5 minor gods, and then there were several instances where characters weren't what they appeared to be or had hidden agendas, and then there were a lot of dreams/spirit floating to interpret, and on top of that, the Kanes' mission to defeat Set was really just a small part of this bigger problem that was out there. Granted, there were lots of Greek Gods as well, but in Percy Jackson, not all of them were introduced in one book. The reader was eased into it and again there was the sense of familiarity. But in this...well, I just got confused keeping track of it all. It's a good lesson for kids, but a lot to handle I think. My son is about a third of the way through and after he reads it, I'll have a better feel for how well kids do with it, but I would guess that they would be rather confused, as I was, by the end. 


Overall writer's score: 3

Review - some girls are by courtney summers

Ok, why is that whenever the title is in small letters on the book I feel obligated to post it that way in the review? Makes no sense. *walks off shaking her head*

Onto the review:

Summary: Regina Afton is a member of the Fearsome Five, the hated clique that is both feared and revered at Hallowell High. But she's more than that. She's the best friend, and right hand woman, of the clique's leader, Anna (think of the Godfather's Luca Brasi and you get the picture). In short, she's a bitch. She doesn't like herself much, but it's a coveted position and being in the circle is a million times better than being out of it. Until the night of the party. After Anna's boyfriend, Donnie, attempts to rape her, Regina seeks advice from Kara, another member of the group - and finds herself betrayed. Kara tells Anna that Regina slept with Donnie and before Regina has a chance to explain, she finds herself frozen out of the clique. From then on, it's a blood-bath (sometimes literally) as Regina copes with banishment and faces her own true self.

Reader's crit: If you haven't read this book yet, get thee to a bookstore. NOW! OMG, Some Girls Are is so awesome, it really did make me do all those thing listed on my score sheet - yes even the hubby. :) I could not put this book down - I mean I sat in one spot and read and read from the first page until the very last. I haven't had a book grip me like that in quite a while. And it was gripping. The book was loaded with tension. The main character, Regina, isn't all that likable. I mean, she was cruel to people, hurt them, even drove them to the brink of suicide, and yet there I was crying for her situation. How did Summers do that? I mean we've all had an encounter with a bitch before and Regina's character is the type that puts other bitches in their place, and yet, I was bawling my eyes out. And not just at the ending - probably four or five times throughout the book. If a book can get me all teary eyed before I'm even a quarter of the way through, then it's got something special. On my reader's scale I give this a 5, though if I could, I'd knock it up to a 7 or 8.


Writer's score: I'm searching for something critical to say here.... searching.... still searching. Ah! I've got it. *Pause* Nope, sorry. There just isn't anything here that I can say needs work or that irritated me. Maybe the only thing I could say is that the tension never let up enough that I felt like I could put the book down to go get a snack or a cup of tea. And I do love my tea. I have heard people say that the ending was too abrupt, but I really didn't mind it. I think that Courtney Summers has now become my all-time favorite YA author (not counting JK Rowling or Rick Riordan - but those are middle grade). Really, I'm in love here. Score = 5.

Book Review - Undone by Brooke Taylor

My rating system: here

From the back cover:

Kori, the "dark angel" of her high school, and Serena, just an average girl couldn't be more different. But when a seemingly chance encounter ignites their friendship, Kori draws Serena into her world, one where "living on the edge" is an understatement.

Then they are given an assignment to list five ways to tempt fate -- things they would never dream could actually happen. Serena doesn't take her list very seriously until a tragedy leaves her shocked, alone, and in possession of Kori's five secret wishes. Can Serena complete her best friend's list? Or will she leave Kori's dreams undone?

Reader's review: I ordered this book without even reading the plot or any reviews. I had seen the prologue on Krsitin Nelson's blog and was instantly hooked. See linky here for the prologue and Kristin's description of why it works.To say it in a few words - Undone is awesome. It has heart, soul, and a few life lessons thrown into the mix (though not overly obtuse until the end). It reminded me a lot of Looking for Alaska by John Green, the storyline being about a girl with a shining persona who falls too hard, too young and the remaining half of the book is all about how the survivor tries to find meaning behind it. Only in my opinion, Taylor does it a lot better than John Green (I hope no Green fans start screaming at me here). I got weepy at the end of Undone, not the case with Looking for Alaska. And while I give points to Green for writing a compelling male character, the characters and emotions felt in Undone seemed more real to me. Serena has lost her best friend, not just an acquaintance of a few months, and the mystery surrounding the night of her death is really a mystery - and vitally important to the main character's life. Not quite the case with LFA. And finally, Anthony....*swoon*. It's nice to see a normal guy in a YA book for once, not a stalkerish, "I love you even though I tried to and/or want to kill you" love interest. My overall rating? 4.5.

Writer's review: Voice: Awesomeness. Descriptions: Two thumbs up. Inventiveness: Two thumbs way up, with acronyms like BBFBBM (body by Fisher, brains by Mattel) how can you go wrong? The only thing I'd say negatively about the writing is that it reads a little slow in places. There were often chapter introductions where Selena goes into a long monologue before getting to the point and this sort of got old after awhile. It slowed down the pacing a lot, but fortunately just when I was getting tired of the monologues, the plot really started to pick up. Characterization also gets two thumbs up. Serena really develops as a character, going through many changes as she discovers who she is, and I really like the way that her friendship with Kori changes her even though Kori is dead through half of the book. Even one of the stock characters (a cheerleader of course) becomes three dimensional by the end. My overall rating? 4.5 Any writer can learn a lot about voice by picking this book up, and I highly recommend it for that reason alone.

SPOILER ALERT:  I feel like I have to add one little thing, and that's the mystery that gets resolved at the end. I can't believe that I didn't pick up on it sooner, there were so many clues. Yet it didn't come to me until the last 60 pages or so. Then I sort of felt like hitting myself on the forehead, Duh!! I'd like to believe it was the fine writing that kept me in the dark so long, but rather I think I was just sort of dense. In either case, I really loved it, loved what it said about Kori, and loved that the whole story came around in a complete circle from beginning to end. We should all strive to write a plot like that.

Book Review - Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

A few words: So this is my first book review - yay for getting my behind in gear! Better late than never, right? I'm hoping to do one of these per week in the future, but we'll see how it goes. After seeing the rating systems others have for their reviews, I decided to do mine a bit differently. I'll be giving two ratings - one from a reader's perspective and one from a writer's perspective. Now at some level these ratings are intertwined - most really good books are well written. But as we all know, there are plenty of good stories out there that are terribly written. In truth, there's a huge difference in how you look at book from a reader's perspective and a writer's perspective. Writer's pay more attention to characterization, plot and the writing itself, whereas readers generally just want a good story they can connect to. Hopefully this system will help differentiate the two. Linky for my review system is here.

Book Review 1: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
 From the inside cover:


"Dead girl walking", the boys say in the halls.
"Tell us your secret," the girls whisper one toilet to another.

I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. Now Cassie is dead. Lia's mother is busy saving other people's lives. Her father is away on business. Her step-mother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia's head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way --thin, thinner, thinnest -- maybe she'll disappear altogether.


On the reader's side: Wintergirls is a powerful depiction into one girl's struggle with anorexia. But it's not really a story about anorexia, it's a story about what drove Lia there in the first place. Very little attention is devoted to how she drags herself out of her self destructive behavior. And we don't get to see the difficulties she encounters once on the other side. What we do get to see is that Lia isn't really a likable character. She's spoiled, lazy, lies constantly, puts all the blame on her parents and is not really interested in seeking help.When we see how much her parents want to help her and how sweet her step-sister is, we feel like we want to shake this girl silly and tell her to snap out of it. But that's the compelling part of the book. We can't. And it's that feeling of frustration which makes the book so good. I have to admit that the latter half of the book had me crying. I did put it down once in a while early on, but not after I got past the halfway mark.You just have to see what's going to happen to Lia, even if you don't like her.

Score: 4.5 because it was a little slow in the beginning.


On the writer's side: The thing that Laurie Halse Anderson does better than 99% of YA writers out there? Voice. Really she couldn't get away with writing a book like this without it. This book is all about voice and characterization - it's literary so I suppose it has to be. Certain events happen that plunge Lia further into her downward spiral, but really the events are trivial to the bigger picture.  Lia is in a delicate state as it is when we arrive on the scene and the things that trigger her relapse into anorexia are circumstantial.The whole story is about Lia's character, her inner struggle and how she got there, something which Anderson excels at.

Adding to that, Anderson's imagery is beyond comparison.There were times when I was simply in awe of her choice of words and metaphors. Anderson also isn't shy about trying something new. There are places in the book where she literally scratches out Lia's thoughts and re-writes them, just as if we were reading her diary (although technically the book is not in diary form). Some people may have found this annoying, but I actually liked it. Though, I have to admit that it was a little irritating to look at a page and a half of: MUST. NOT. EAT. repeated over and over. Waste of paper, IMHO.The pacing could have been better, but in the end it's forgivable because the climax is so good.

Writer's score: 5 characterization, voice and imagery outweigh the little nitpicks