Review: This Gorgeous Game by Donna Freitas

     

This Gorgeous Game by Donna Freitas
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Pages: 240
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Published: January, 2012
IBSN: 9780312674403

Seventeen-year-old Olivia Peters is absolutely over the moon when her literary idol, the celebrated novelist and much-adored local priest Mark D. Brendan, selects her from hundreds of other applicants as the winner of his writing contest. Not only is she invited to take his class at the local university; she also gets one-on-one sessions with him to polish her story and prepare it for publication. But the writing sessions escalate into emails, and texts, and IMs, and gifts, and social events. What was once a delightful opportunity has become a dreadful burden. What kind of game is Father Mark playing? And how on earth can she get out of it?

Olivia wins a writing competition and the chance of a lifetime to not only meet her literary idol, but to have him as a mentor as she prepares her story for publication. His faith in her talent is encouraging and his attention is flattering, until it isn't anymore. There appears to be no escaping him when he calls and texts and emails and IMs and shows up around every corner.

This Gorgeous Game is a unique and personal look at an issue not commonly explored in YA, in which Freitas realistically develops and captures the natural feelings of isolation and anxiety associated with stalking.

Olivia is written with such an endearing normal voice. In fact, all of the characters and their dynamics and their situations were so, so normal. Olivia has an older, engaged sister; nice, supportive friends; a caring mother; a burgeoning romantic relationship. All of this carefully contrasts with her life post-normal, post-competition, and it becomes clear how in the foreign post-competition that she could miss where the line should have been drawn.

For all of the normality, though, it isn't plain or boring. The psychological premise isn't the whole plot, with the focus often on forming the kind of strong friendships that save. But for these character-building respites from the more disturbing themes, it actually serves to make them all the more frightening. The way obsessiveness like Father Mark's can worm its way slowly into lives mostly unnoticed -- into any normal life, from the most unexpected of places.

This Gorgeous Game is a story frightening in its portrayal of how easy it is to miss warnings of the most sinister things, but simultaneously uplifting in the promise of a friend's help. Well-written and engaging, it's not to be missed by fans of grittier contemporaries and not to be dismissed by people squeamish about subject matter like this.

Review: I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan

     

I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan
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Pages: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: May 17th, 2011
IBSN: 9780316122795

Raised by an unstable father who keeps the family constantly on the move, Sam Border hasn't been in a classroom since the second grade. He's always been the rock for his younger brother Riddle, who stopped speaking long ago and instead makes sense of the world through his strange and intricate drawings. It's said that the two boys speak with one voice--and that voice is Sam's.
Then, Sam meets Emily Bell, and everything changes. The two share an immediate and intense attraction, and soon Sam and Riddle find themselves welcomed into the Bell's home. Faced with normalcy for the first time, they know it's too good to last.

Sam and his younger brother Riddle live under the care of their unstable criminal father, constantly moving out of his paranoia. Drawn to music, Sam one day finds himself in the back pew of a church, transfixed by the off-key solo of Emily Bell, who's given him more incentive to stay than he's ever had.

Let's begin with: I'll Be There is one of the most charming books I've ever read.

The tone of I'll Be There pretty accurately represented what it was all about. All throughout these undeservedly terrible situations, there's a hopeful undertone giving comfort. Hope carries in the promise from the very beginning "I'll be there", in the way our characters never  delve into self-pity, in the soft, young quality to the prose.

Sloan's writing style is spare and beautiful and perfectly captures the emotions behind each of the characters and pulls off third person narration with deeply personal voices. A whole range of characters -- from smarmy sons of detectives to young boys whose education come from phone books to concerned parents -- are created genuine and relatable despite how wholly different they may be to the target audience, and our three leads Sam, Emily and Riddle are among the sweetest characters I've ever had the pleasure of accompanying.

On diverse characters, the story also struck me as having this ageless quality -- as in young in a way that wasn't juvenille or distant -- that will make it appeal to people of all ages, not just YA.

Also, unexpectedly, I'll Be There was not an entirely character-driven novel. In the first pages, Emily tells us about her fascination with twists of fate and ironies, detailing a story of a woman saved from a fall from her apartment window by a mattress ditched by the future husband she'll one day run over and kill. And later, the story follows the Border brothers through a series of astounding near-impossibilities that we forget are still possibilities, taking us along for an almost-ridiculously winding journey that would be comical if it weren't so sad.

And for all of the characters' personal journeys and emotional turmoil, Sloan weaves an ending that intertwines all of the finer points of the novel, restores karmic balance, and leaves even the most stone-hearted of readers all gooey.

A heart-warming story of circumstance and chance and love, I'll Be There is a new favourite of mine and must-read for fans of contemporary fiction.

Review: The Future Of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

     

The Future Of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
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Pages: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
Published: January, 2012
IBSN: 9780857076076

It's 1996 and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet. Facebook will not be invented for several more years. Emma just got a computer and an America Online CD-ROM with 100 free hours. When she and her best friend Josh log on to AOL they discover themselves on Facebook... fifteen years in the future. Everybody wonders what life has in store for them.
Josh and Emma are about to find out.

Emma's dad's latest guilt gift is a new computer. When Josh comes over with an America Online CD-ROM, they log onto the internet for the first time and discover the Facebook profiles of their future selves.

I originally anticipating some issues suspending disbelief enough to enjoy The Future Of Us, but the characters reacted with natural and sympathetic confusion and paranoia. The confusion especially was founded, with these two kids from 1996 who have no idea how reliant we are on the internet seeing people's lives laid out bare. The Facebook element serves to make us reflect on our own dependence on the internet, and show us that the way to happiness a) is by focusing on the here and now, and b) is by focusing on forming real life connections, rather than ones form through Facebook chat and Twitter @s.

The speculative element is what you pick the story up for, the main hook, but you stay for the predominant contemporary story line of Josh and Emma trying to figure out what they want through trial and error. It's light and fun, at least when it isn't annoying. It follows the classic contemporary plot template of a burgeoning relationship, an obstacle, and a way around it. The ending is predictable, but the way there is mostly sweet and relatable.

I've read books by both Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler before (and am an fan of the latter but not so much the former), and so was familiar with their previous characters -- very normal, very relatable. Josh and Emma followed in the footsteps of their forecharacters in this respect, but took it that little bit farther and to achieve acute plainness. The plain voices reflected the simple prose, which was smooth, certainly, but by no means impressive.

Though what was notable about the characters was perhaps their poor memory or short attention spans. Subplots would arise in the form of worries -- worries that plagued them a great deal -- about their friends' futures, but often drop out unresolved without even entering the characters' thoughts again.

Overall, though, The Future Of Us was an entertaining and surprising novel about social networking and to a greater extent, regular networking. Though with inconsequential subplots and characters occasionally acting irritatingly, there's a sweet message and a sweeter friendship at its heart.

Review: Where It Began by Ann Redisch Stampler

     

Where It Began by Ann Redisch Stampler
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Pages: 384
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: March 6th, 2012
IBSN: 9781442423213

Gabby Gardiner wakes up in a hospital bed looking like a cautionary ad for drunk driving—and without a single memory of the accident that landed her there. But what she can recall, in frank and sardonic detail, is the year leading up to the crash.

As Gabby describes her transformation from Invisible Girl to Trendy Girl Who Dates Billy Nash (aka Most Desirable Boy Ever), she is left wondering: Why is Billy suddenly distancing himself from her? What do her classmates know that Gabby does not? Who exactly was in the car that night? And why has Gabby been left to take the fall?

As she peels back the layers of her life, Gabby begins to realize that her climb up the status ladder has been as intoxicating as it has been morally complex...and that nothing about her life is what she has imagined it to be.

Gabby wakes up in hospital with no memory of the night that put her there, but what happened was obvious. With the blood alcohol concentration of a keg and in her hand the keys to her boyfriend's car wrapped around a tree beside her, her future looks to be a blur of DUI charges, jail time, and perhaps the most daunting in her mother's eyes, a face mangled by the crash. In the aftermath, she'll question if the events of that night were really what they seemed.

Ann Redisch Stampler's YA debut gets under your skin. Far from the light contemporary the cover and blurb imply, you accompany Gabby through a difficult journey and through so many intense and complicated emotions and realisations -- that growing into the person she wants to be is more important than any relationship is perhaps the most profound of all.
Written in evocative prose in a voice inherently teenaged and inherently Gabby. The narration was so personal, Gabby felt real and like someone we really know. I felt as though in the shoes of a fourth member of their friend group -- another Lisa or Anita bringing board games to her house during her recovery and asking her to open up. Her personality is well realised and well portrayed such that her shortcomings are plausible and sympathetic rather than frustrating.

The characters are dynamic and realistic. I prefer to relate to my characters than to idealise them, so their well-conveyed angst and bias and jealousy and ignorance made them only more engaging. Their flaws and poor decisions bring them to life and make them real. The characterisation was superb, and the narrative voice so true and raw. Stampler creates characters which explore moral grey areas that you can learn things about yourself from.

Gabby's reflection and emotional turmoil pay off in the end, in a huge and unexpected and perfect complete turn around. The way she finds the strength to accept what happened to her free of any bitterness and pursue what she really needs rather than wants is inspiring, and also gives us the comfort of knowing she finds the peace she so deserves.

Where It Began tackles relevant issues in a non-preachy tone, making for a story we get more than a few hours of entertainment from. Characters well-written and are created with relatability prioritised over likeablility, to be affecting on a much deeper level. It's an upcoming, enriching contemporary any fans of the genre should definitely seek out in early March.

Review: The Sharp Time by Mary O'Connell

     

The Sharp Time by Mary O'Connell
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Pages: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Published: November 8th, 2011
IBSN: 9780385740487

Sandinista Jones is a high school senior with a punk rock name and a broken heart. The death of her single mother has left Sandinista alone in the world, subject to the random vulnerability of everyday life. When the school system lets her down, her grief and instability intensify, and she ponders a violent act of revenge.

Still, in the midst of her crisis, she gets a job at The Pale Circus, a funky vintage clothing shop, and finds friendship and camaraderie with her coworker, a boy struggling with his own secrets.

Even as Sandinista sees the failures of those with power and authority, she's offered the chance to survive through the redemptive power of friendship. Now she must choose between faith and forgiveness or violence and vengeance.

The death of her beloved mother and the constant failures and shortcomings of the world around her leaves Sandinista caught between constant defeatism and rage. On the weird and wonderful Thirty-Eighth street, plans for violent revenge take root and a redemptive friendship is formed.

Sandinista had one of the most capturing and passionate voices I've ever read. Everything she was feeling was laid out bare -- her pleas, her grief, the memory are you paying attention? on repeat. She was profoundly angry and profoundly melancholic, and it never even needed to be said, the mood was so effectively created. The writing had the feel of a stream of consciousness, so raw from the perspective of someone so haunted.

Beyond being so easily sympathetic, Sandinista was a relateable protagonist struggling with a relevant issue. Her loss of faith in authority figures and burgeoning desire for retribution articulated feelings the audience is very familiar with. So much about Sandinista's journey was deeply affecting.

The story demonstrated the potential for redemption and solace in the relationships in others; a touching thing for the profoundly lonely Sandinista to come to realise. Her relationship with Bradley had a realistic and gritty dynamic, and the way their bond strengthened through the comfort they eventually found in each other was warming.

On top of being teeming with the heavy, how-can-she-bear-to-carry-this emotion, the writing style is wonderfully clever. Articulate and poetic and wry and so, so clever. "...a squinting owlish lover wondering 'who, who, who are you?'" O'Connell's first novel demonstrated a talent for writing not bestowed upon many debut authors. She subtly creates feeling, such as the thick tension, and builds it gradually and carefully into something almost tangible.

The setting is brought to life with vivacity and stunning imagery. The alternative and surreal thirty-eighth street -- home to an erotic bakery, a monastery, and the vintage clothes store The Pale Circus that Sandinista finds peace working it -- is described evocatively and personified as this comforting maternal figure to Sandinista.

The Sharp Time was a gritty glimpse into the life of someone filled with an emotion YA doesn't often delve into. Grief is well-covered, ditto hopelessness, loneliness, longing. Sandinista's anger is well conveyed and sympathetic, her story detailed intimately, and the message proved touching and relevant.

Review: Break by Hannah Moskowitz

     

Break by Hannah Moskowitz
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Pages: 262
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: August 25th, 2009
IBSN: 9781416982753

Jonah is on a mission to break every bone in his body. Everyone knows that broken bones grow back stronger than they were before. And Jonah wants to be stronger—needs to be stronger—because everything around him is falling apart. Breaking, and then healing, is Jonah’s only way to cope with the stresses of home, girls, and the world on his shoulders.

When Jonah's self-destructive spiral accelerates and he hits rock bottom, will he find true strength or surrender to his breaking point?

Jonah believes that the family is the smallest unit of measurement. He and his brothers and his parents aren't components of a family, in that they can't be split apart from the family. With a brother deathly allergic to pretty much everything, including their newborn brother, and parents constantly at odds, Jonah decides he needs to be stronger in order for the family to be stronger.

So begins Jonah's mission to break his bones and have them heal stronger. No, it isn't as pointlessly self-destructive as it sounds. It started with a car accident that broke both femurs, and evolved to intentionally taking a few fingers, a wrist, a rib. "The first feeling is pain...the feeling that never comes in regret."

Break appeared on my radar after I read the wonderful Invincible Summer, Hannah Moskowitz's sophomore novel. Going back to her debut of two years prior, I was worried that IS set me up for disappointment, but while I could see how Hannah's writing developed between the two, Break was still an highly emotional and enjoyable read.

Hannah Moskowitz's style is raw and arresting, adopting a common family setting teeming with stress and worry and love and pulling it off with the believability of someone who's been there. The dynamics are so realistic and touching. The bond between Jonah and Jesse especially, both constructive and destructive at the same time, felt so real, and the exploration at their impact on each other's lives felt so deeply personal that remembering them as fictional characters came as a shock.

The characters' conflicts and motivations, the dynamics between them, their situations: everything is realistic and gritty. Hannah Moskowitz is skilled in bringing to life the most difficult and complicated of relationships and characters and making them relatable.

Break is a powerful and personal contemporary family drama I'd recommend to fans of Courtney Summers' novels. It's one lovers of Invincible Summer should check out to help pass the time until Gone, Gone, Gone's April release.

Review: The Statistical Probability Of Love At First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

     

The Statistical Probability Of Love At First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
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Pages: 224
Publisher: Headline
Published: January 5th, 2012
IBSN: 9780755384020

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Imagine if she hadn't forgotten the book. Or if there hadn't been traffic on the expressway. Or if she hadn't fumbled the coins for the toll. What if she'd run just that little bit faster and caught the flight she was supposed to be on. Would it have been something else - the weather over the atlantic or a fault with the plane?

Hadley isn't sure if she believes in destiny or fate but, on what is potentially the worst day of each of their lives, it's the quirks of timing and chance events that mean Hadley meets Oliver...

Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.

Say Hadley had gotten to the airport just four minutes earlier and made her flight. She wouldn't have met Oliver, and may have had the exact miserable experience at her father's wedding that she anticipated. She was lucky. But in another stroke of luck, the two of them are separated after their flight without so much as a last name.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight has built up a lot of early buzz as a breezy crossover romance. The quirky mood of the story is matched by its title, though while I love long titles as much as anyone else, the whole time I was bothered by how little correlation there is between statistics and probability and how it just didn't work. But onto points of the book that matter more.

The Statistical Probability is barely 200 pages long, short in a way that reflected the story's span of less than 24 hours. Plain prose suited the simple romantic premise and kept to the point, making for a very fast, one-sitting read -- apt for readers also on aeroplanes.

The characters were likable and with definite chemistry, though with voices that didn't distinguish themselves from hordes of other romantic leads. I guess that helped them, though, in a way, adding a familiarity to them that made investing in their story easier. Though without any real development from their either lead, the novel couldn't be called affecting.

The plot also follows the typical structure of romance closely: the couple meets and hits it off, something splits them up, and they reunite. In this case, the something that split them up was airport routine completely independent of them, so their reunion didn't involve any character development or personal demons conquered. Still, while there was little depth, Statistical Probability was very fun to just stop thinking and read.

The romance was sweet, unmushy, and a believable whirlwind that I'm a sucker for. The characters were likable, and occasionally funny, and the story progressed quickly. It's the classic feel-good rom-com translated to paper. It's the exact story you predict from the adorable edition cover. It's the quick cure to a miserable day.

Overall, The Statistical Probability was a cute and entertaining read, if a little generic. It should definitely appeal to fans of YA romance.

Review: Brother/Sister by Sean Olin

     

Brother/Sister by Sean Olin
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Pages: 272
Publisher: Penguin Australia
Published: August 2011
IBSN: 9780141338453

WILL
How many times do I have to say it? Yes, I see the picture. It’s a body, obviously. It’s a dead body.

ASHELEY
You have to understand, I love my brother. I’m scared of him too, but . . . regardless of what he has or hasn’t done, I feel for him, you know.

WILL
I don’t care what happens to me, really, I don’t. But Asheley . . . she had nothing to do with any of this.

ASHELEY
It’s not like it sounds. He had a good heart. He trusted me. And I always did the best I could to help him.

WILL
It’s not her fault. None of it. Okay then. The guy in the photo. I killed him . . . but I had to. I had no choice. Why? That’s complicated. That’ll take a while.

This time their deadbeat alcoholic mother is shipped off to rehab, Will and Asheley feel like they're better off. After her departure, Will wins a golf tournament and Asheley finally starts to fit in. Everything's looking up, so why do they end up interrogated in a murder investigation?

Brother/Sister is told through the dual perspectives of Will and Asheley, their narrations a statement to a policeman asking questions about the mysterious and unexplained dead bodies, a recount of the events leading them to the interrogation room. It was a refreshing style, told from the characters' mouths rather than from inside their head. That they had the capacity to lie to us was intriguing.

Brother/Sister began with a kind of blatant hook; the premise of a dead body and the promise of an explanation. But beyond that the story seemed to drag, with the narration slipping from its personal address to first-person detailing of every tedious moment their lives. The odd references to the interrogator were startling, but served as reminders that the story was indeed going somewhere and heightened anticipation.

The end pulled together all of the seemingly pointless plot threads made me rethink dismissing them all. I almost forgive the drawn out and dull beginning for the surprise realisation that it all amounted to something. What you expected from the very beginning -- the inevitability of future tense -- was contradicted with an decidedly unexpected twist, in the literal last sentence, blink-and-you'll-miss-it quick and read-it-over-several-times unbelievable.

The main appeal of this story was the characters, for their skilfully evoked and distinct voices. For their slow development (or rather, deterioration) and for the slow revelation that they may not be as reliable as their relatable beginning may have you believe. The small and cleverly constructed discrepancies between the siblings' recounts were the the first hint, and they gradually got bigger and less deniable.

I recommend Brother/Sister to fans of Choker (Elizabeth Woods), Entangled (Cat Clark), Tighter (Adele Griffin), and Every You, Every Me (David Levithan). It was an intense and gritty story, well-told. It was boring in places, but you'll be rewarded at the conclusion for sticking with it.

Review: Every You, Every Me by David Levithan

     

Every You, Every Me by David Levithan
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Pages: 245
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: September 13th, 2011
IBSN: 9780375860980

In this high school-set psychological tale, a tormented teen named Evan starts to discover a series of unnerving photographs—some of which feature him. Someone is stalking him . . . messing with him . . . threatening him. Worse, ever since his best friend Ariel has been gone, he's been unable to sleep, spending night after night torturing himself for his role in her absence. And as crazy as it sounds, Evan's starting to believe it's Ariel that's behind all of this, punishing him. But the more Evan starts to unravel the mystery, the more his paranoia and insomnia amplify, and the more he starts to unravel himself. Creatively told with black-and-white photos interspersed between the text so the reader can see the photos that are so unnerving to Evan, Every You, Every Me is a one-of-a-kind departure from a one-of-a-kind author.  

Evan wasn't exactly stable with Ariel, but now she's gone and left a best-friend-shaped-hole in his life all his pretenses of normality are dropped. To top off his misery, somebody who knew Ariel, somebody she never mentioned, is sending him photos. Strange photos of Ariel and him that only somebody watching them from afar could have taken.

New books from David Levithan are an automatic must-read for me, since Dash And Lily's Book of Dares and The Lover's Dictionary. Every You, Every Me was no different in the fascinating idea and execution and the skillful writing (but that was a given before I'd even read him -- I mean, the edited Shiver and The Hunger Games).

Every You, Every Me began with the cover photograph by Jonathan Farmer, and it evolved from there with Levithan writing a section inspired by each new photograph. Farmer didn't get the read the lead up to each photo before offering each new addition, and this kind of spontaneity of writing intrigued me. Especially since I didn't know about this until the ending, and the photos always meant something to the story and were smoothly plotted.

As always, David Levithan offers a story in fresh prose, in equal parts moving and fascinating. Every You, Every Me was written in the raw and jagged way of actual thought processes, with struck out, repressed thoughts and emotion dripping from the page, stickying your hands with it in a way you couldn't just wipe off on your pants leg.

Every You, Every Me isn't just for fans of psychological thrillers; those themes take a backseat to insight into the mind of someone in emotional anguish, deeper than see in regular first-person grieving stories. Definitely for fans of darker, more serious, YA. Think like Printz winners -- Every You, Every Me will appeal to fans of Please Ignore Vera Dietz, Paper Towns, Nothing.

I give Every You, Every Me a 5 out of 5.

Review: Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

     

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger
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Pages: 273
Publisher: Poppy
Published: September 5th, 2011
IBSN: 9780316175562

Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part,Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention.
Then Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. But what Lissa never sees coming is her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling...

The girlfriends of the football players at Hamilton High are fed up with the soccer-football rivalry distracting their boyfriends, so they go on a sex strike. What starts out as a manipulative plan only declines further after Lissa's boyfriend cheats on her and the motivation behind the strike seems less and less influenced by the rivalry.

With subject matter so sketchy (I don't mean the sex. I love when books that don't shyly tiptoe around it, even if this one seemed to be shouting it repeatedly), I can say I only decided to pick up Shut Out because I figured it would be like her first book, The DUFF, in that some things annoyed the hell out of me but I still really enjoyed it. I figured mostly right. I enjoyed reading it, but didn't like it. (Is that possible?)

Much of the feminist themes come through like the author preaching. Kody Keplinger is quite vocal on her blog about gender double-standards, and it really shows in Shut Out. Plus, I couldn't take female characters trying to combat misogyny seriously when so much of their dialogue is rife with misandry. For example, Lissa and her friends complain that she's called a 'tease' for being a virgin, but they call Cash a tease right back. It isn't okay to empower women by putting down men.

I couldn't say I liked Lissa. I never fully understood her character. The sex strike was her idea, and that didn't make much sense after the twist around halfway through. Her anal-retentiveness never felt natural, but awkward. It just felt like something carelessly thrown in to take her development further.

Shut Out is fans of Kody's first book, The DUFF, provided they don't mind being preached at. It has the same fun, breezy tone, but it's a lot heavier on the feminism.

I give Shut Out a 2 out of 5.

Review: Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez

     

Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez
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Pages: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: October 18th, 2011
IBSN: 9781442420526

Now is not the time for Carmen to fall in love. And Jeremy is hands-down the wrong guy for her to fall for. He is infuriating, arrogant, and the only person who can stand in the way of Carmen getting the one thing she wants most: to win the prestigious Guarneri competition. Carmen's whole life is violin, and until she met Jeremy, her whole focus was winning. But what if Jeremy isn't just hot...what if Jeremy is better? Carmen knows that kissing Jeremy can't end well, but she just can't stay away. Nobody else understands her--and riles her up--like he does. Still, she can't trust him with her biggest secret: She is so desperate to win she takes anti-anxiety drugs to perform, and what started as an easy fix has become a hungry addiction. Carmen is sick of not feeling anything on stage and even more sick of always doing what she’s told, doing what's expected.
Sometimes, being on top just means you have a long way to fall...

Carmen's entire life has revolved around her violin career. It hasn't been so bad, until recently. Performance without anti-anxiety medication seems impossible and her mother's trying to continue her own prematurely-ended career through Carmen. Her budding romance with fellow prodigy Jeremy seems to be the only good thing about her violin now, but her mother won't even allow for one distraction.

Virtuosity was an impressive debut, skilfully written. Music books usually aren't my thing, but this story wasn't exclusively about violin. It was about family and romance and seemingly insurmountable pressure. Martinez captured a teenage voice with deftness and created trials for her that led to stunning character development.

The prose was spare, but it very much captured Carmen's voice. I became invested in her story early on, and I was feeling alongside her anxious, excited, worried, whatever emotion. She was likable, with her earnest and kind personality. I also admired the way she began to stand up for herself eventually.

The romance definitely hit the spot as well. Carmen's story wasn't dominated by her burgeoning relationship with Jeremy, but it was important to her development, rather than just an obligatory subplot. Jeremy and Carmel changed and grew so much because of each other, and though their romance felt slightly rushed, there was much chemistry.

Though sometimes Carmen feeling so sorry for herself verged on annoying, it was easy to see where she was coming from. I can't say that I appreciate melodrama, but I can understand it. Carmen's lived a fairly smooth life, with a talent and a family who loves her (and some that doesn't, but that's not too big a deal) and a comfortable home. I could understand how the events of Virtuosity had her overwhelmed.

The ending was sappy and a little too dragged out, but overall, Virtuosity was a promising debut. The prose lended to three-dimensional characters, and the themes were universal.

I give Virtuosity a 4 out of 5.

Review: Past Perfect by Leila Sales

     

Past Perfect by Leila Sales
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Pages: 322
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: October 4th, 2011
IBSN: 9781442406827

All Chelsea wants to do this summer is hang out with her best friend, hone her talents as an ice cream connoisseur, 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. Which makes moving on and forgetting Ezra a lot more complicated…even when Chelsea starts falling for someone new.  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. Because those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it…

Chelsea has worked at Essex Historical Colonial Village for almost as long as she can remember, and was looking forward to finally getting a normal job when her drama club friend roped her into another summer of role-playing in sweating colonial garb. If it wasn't bad enough, her ex-boyfriend has started working there as well. If she can ever get over him, there's a cute boy from the rival civil war reenactors across the road...

Chelsea's voice was immediately captivating, clever and wry. She's quirky and a little neurotic, and so very relatable. She acted self-centered and oblivious at times, but the inclusion of flaws made for a more realistically developed character.

The war between the rival historical reenactors was hilarious, and reminded me of a lighter, simpler Jellicoe Road. Part of the comedy was in how the characters took themselves and their work way too seriously. They place anachronisms like mobile phones in the civil war village and plan it in austere fashion with a leader who treats it all like the actual war. They throw pejoratives like 'farb' around and take it with extreme offense.

The highlight, however, was the romance. Dan and Chelsea's relationship melted even decidedly unromantic me. Their interactions in the odd situations they were thrown together is were just unbearably cute, and by the end their romance becomes touching on a whole other level.

Past Perfect also reminded me of something John Green said in his vlogs: "You don't remember what happened. What you remember becomes what happened." (A quote aptly butchered by memory). Misremembering proves to be an intriguingly large part of the story. There were deeper themes beyond the fluffy, feel-good exterior.

But Past Perfect is, at its simplest, an adorable and warming read.

 This book is for everyone who went out last week to get Lola And The Boy Next Door, finished it the same day, and can't wait until Isla comes out for their cute, fun romance fix. Or just anyone who wants a cute, fun romance fix.

I give Past Perfect a 5 out of 5.

P.S. Has anyone read Leila Sales' other book, Mostly Good Girls? Is it as good as this one?

Review: If I Tell by Janet Gurtler

     

If I Tell by Janet Gurtler
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Pages: 256
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Published: October 1st, 2011
IBSN: 9781402261039

Jasmine Evans knows one thing for sure... people make mistakes. After all, she is one. Jaz is the result of a onenight stand between a black football player and a blonde princess. Having a young mother who didn't raise her, a father who wants nothing to do with her and living in a small-minded town where she's never fit in hasn't been easy. But she's been surviving. Until she sees her mom's new boyfriend making out with her own best friend. When do you forgive people for being human or give up on them forever? 

Jasmine catches mother's boyfriend making out with her best friend just after finding out about her mother's pregnancy. With her own issues with being abandoned by her father, she's caught between exposing her dirtbag almost-step-dad and keeping it from her already stressed-out mother.

It's not as much of a daytime TV drama as the blurb makes it out to be. Now that's out of the way...

Jas has a lot on her plate, certainly, but sympathising with her isn't easy. I couldn't become emotionally attached to her -- or any other character. The narrative voice felt...bland. Jas is reserved, and the voice dedicates itself to portraying that trait without combining it with a compelling or interesting tone.

Jas's issues with her race didn't seem realistic. The only people who bullied her did it such unnatural dialogue ("Who says that? WHO?") that I didn't take their taunts seriously. The setting, a supposedly close-minded town, didn't come across how it was intended. We were told several times that the place was typically close-minded, but we weren't shown it in any depth. But then again, I live in a very mixed-races town and no one really cares what you are here, so I don't know anything much about this. I just wasn't convinced.

For me with contemporary novels, connection to the characters is one of the biggest aspects. They aren't typically plot-driven, but character-driven. I didn't feel anything for the characters of If I Tell, so I didn't feel much for the book overall.

The plot couldn't redeem it for me, with so many chaotic sub-plots I couldn't see what the characters' goals were. This book attempted to tackle many issues, but it just created this tangled plotline.

I'd recommend If I Tell to fans of Janet Gurtler's first book, I'm Not Her, but not to any devout contemporary fans.

I give If I Tell a 2 out of 5.

Review: I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler

     

I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler
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Pages: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Published: May 1st, 2011
IBSN: 9781402256363

Tess is the exact opposite of her beautiful, athletic sister. And that’s okay. Kristina is the sporty one, Tess is the smart one, and they each have their place. Until Kristina is diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly Tess is the center of the popular crowd, everyone eager for updates. There are senior boys flirting with her. Yet the smiles of her picture-perfect family are cracking and her sister could be dying. Now Tess has to fill a new role: the strong one. Because if she doesn’t hold it together, who will?

Tess pales in comparison to her popular, athletic, perfect sister. You know the type -- it's a common trope. But her sister, Kristina, is diagnosed with cancer, and suddenly Tess has to adopt a new role in her family as her mother grows more useless each day and her father grows less present each day.

It's not exactly an original premise, no. You've already read the story about the outshadowed sister coming into her own. I'm not going to try to convince you that I'm Not Her is a refreshing take on it, but I will submit that several themes and plot turns were unexpected, but not enough to make the story stand out.

The characters fell kind of flat, and in the end, I didn't care for them. Some were at unnaturally extreme ends of stereotypes, but I didn't dislike any of them per se. I just didn't become emotionally attached to any of them. While they were going through struggles, I was wondering which book I should read next.

The writing style was smooth and adequately detailed the events and Tess's feelings, but it doesn't lend to a compelling character voice.

I'm Not Her doesn't break any new ground in the genre. It's for fans of contemporary novels who don't mind a plot reminiscent of much else out there.

I give I'm Not Her a 2 out of 5.

Review: Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood

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Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood


Pages: 244
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: August 1st, 2010
IBSN:9780330426060

Fourteen year old nerd-boy Dan Cereill is not quite coping with a reversal of family fortune, moving house, new school hell, a mother with a failing wedding cake business, a just-out gay dad, and an impossible crush on Estelle, the girl next door. His life is a mess, but for now he's narrowed it down to just six impossible things...

I'm disappointed that I read this books after my post about what makes Aussie YA Aussie YA, because Six Impossible Things demonstrated exactly what I meant about it being 'comfortable'. Everything about it felt familiar, and not in the "this story is hackneyed" kind of way. Six Impossible Things was like a story your friends recount to you.

The awkwardly funny tone of the story was reminiscent of teen movies that make you cringe in the good sense. The situations Dan found himself in were often embarrassing, but he responds to it all in such a down-to-earth and relatable way that we want to stifle our laughter and help him to his feet.

Dan's voice was so distinct and real, and his problems were all relatable: unrequited love, money issues, newly divorced parents, trying to not look like an idiot. I just wanted to give him a hug.

Six Impossible Things was a cute and heart-warming coming-of-age story that any teen, or anyone who was ever a teen, could relate to.

I give Six Impossible Things a 4 out of 5.

I recommend it for fans of: Beatle Meets Destiny, Good Oil, A Straight Line To My Heart.

Review: The Beginning Of After by Jennifer Castle

The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle

Pages: 432
Publisher: HarperTeen
Published: September 6th, 2011
IBSN:  9780061985799

Sixteen-year-old Laurel's world changes instantly when her parents and brother are killed in a terrible car accident. Behind the wheel is the father of her bad-boy neighbor, David Kaufman, whose mother is also killed. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Laurel navigates a new reality in which she and her best friend grow apart, boys may or may not be approaching her out of pity, overpowering memories lurk everywhere, and Mr. Kaufman is comatose but still very much alive. Through it all, there is David, who swoops in and out of Laurel's life and to whom she finds herself attracted against her better judgment. She will forever be connected to him by their mutual loss, a connection that will change them both in unexpected ways. 

The Beginning Of After is compared to If I Stay and The Truth About Forever, two incredibly emotional, beautiful books that show realistic grieving. If it were me, I would have contrasted them instead.

Within the first 20 pages, Laurel's entire immediate family is killed in a car crash. Her whole family is gone. She doesn't have a family anymore. But for this, Laurel's tone isn't as emotional as you would expect. Sure, she'll occasionally be reminded of her family and tell us she feels sad, but there is hardly any of that sadness in her voice as she tells the story.

We can't mourn her family either, because we never got to know them. We got less than 10 pages in the present-tense narration with them, and our flash-backs to them were brief and few and far between.

The story was in a writing style that didn't strike me as remarkable, but made what was taking place clear and reading it fast. The writing was smooth, told a story well, but didn't create or emphasise a distinct voice that I find necessary for a good character-driven novel.

A story about such an commonly-written-about subject as death and bereavement needs a unique flair and emotional prose to stand out from the crowd, and The Beginning Of After lacked in both of these qualities.

I give The Beginning Of After a 3 out of 5.

Review: All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield

All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield


Pages: 202
Publisher: Text Publishing
Published: June 27th, 2011
IBSN: 9781921758300

Mim knows what she wants, and where she wants to go — anywhere but home, stuck in the suburbs with her mother who won't get off the couch, and two brothers in prison.

She's set herself rules to live by, but she's starting to break them.

Over the nine days before her seventeenth birthday, Mim's life turns upside down. She has problems, and she's determined to solve them herself. But in the end, she works out who her people are, and the same things look entirely different.

Mim's story is sweet and raw, her character likeable in its flaws, and her development and change of heart realistic and gradual. Her story is in equal parts heart-wrenching and heart-warming, and wholly touching.

Mim (short for Jemima) doesn't want to associate herself with the deplorable town she lives in, or the people in it. She just wants to get out. She has volumes and volumes of Lonely Planet travel guides read and reread. She's set herself rules to live by to help her get out, but now she's making new friends and delivering suspicious packages for her mother and her rules are slowly being broken.

Mim was a lovely character to read about, even if lovely isn't the word I'd use to describe her. Seeing her begin to contradict herself and realise her truths aren't truths at all and develop was inspiring, and the way she handled the story's gritty romance at the end at odds to how she introduced it perfectly showed how she'd changed.

On gritty romance, I absolutely loved that part of this book -- the way (spoilers ahead!) she was empowered by rejecting the boy who jerked her around even after she pined for him for so long. I always lament about how the girls so many YA relationships swoon over guys who don't deserve it, and I adore how Mim stood up for herself in this one.

Vikki Wakefield's debut was written in beautifully spare prose that easily evoked emotion from the reader. All of Mim's emotions were so clearly and accurately written that they seemed to pool on the page and sticky our hands. Her narration was so honest and her feelings so raw that I began to feel personally acquainted with her.

Mim's story was a short, sweet, and completely gorgeous one. An Aussie debut from a promising writer.

I give All I Ever Wanted a 5 out of 5.

Review: Feeling Sorry For Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty

Feeling Sorry For Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty

Series: Ashbury/Brookfield (#1)
Pages: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: January 10th, 2002.
IBSN: 9780312287368

Life is pretty complicated for Elizabeth Clarry. Her best friend Celia keeps disappearing, her absent father suddenly reappears, and her communication with her mother consists entirely of wacky notes left on the fridge. On top of everything else, because her English teacher wants to rekindle the "Joy of the Envelope," a Complete and Utter Stranger knows more about Elizabeth than anyone else.

But Elizabeth is on the verge of some major changes. She may lose her best friend, find a wonderful new friend, kiss the sexiest guy alive, and run in a marathon.

So much can happen in the time it takes to write a letter...

I don't have much experience with epistolary novels, but my experience with this one was a great one. My concern for a story told entirely through letters was that I wouldn't get a lot of insight into the main character, but the frequent letters from various made-up societies such as "The Cold Hard Truth Society", almost letters to herself, gave us a thorough look into the way Elizabeth thought.

With such a strong, quirky voice, Elizabeth reminded me of Ruby Oliver of E. Lockhart's The Boyfriend List. She was clever, self-deprecating, and had a wry sense of humour. The letters she wrote to herself gave us glimpses into her worries and insecurities that her letters to other people hid behind an endearing and bubbly tone. Her character was fleshed out in a surprising but very welcome way that I didn't expect from the book's format.

The context was also interesting. I had to keep reminding myself this book was written almost 10 years ago, and I was constantly encountering things like 'videos' rather than DVDs and letter writing as a common thing. But with such relatable characters and themes, it was difficult to imagine the story taking place when I was in kindergarten.

The offbeat relationships presented in this book showed unique, fascinating dynamics portrayed in a realistic light. The letters between Elizabeth and her mother and Christina gave depth to their relationships that a regular narrative would not achieve.

Finishing on a touching, hopeful note, highlighting all of the positive that the negative things in Elizabeth's life recently have brought, the conclusion definitely showed how much Elizabeth grew and matured.

Overall, Feeling Sorry For Celia was an incredibly funny and heart-warming story told in a refreshingly different and engaging style.

I give Feeling Sorry For Celia a 5 out of 5. 

Review: Chasing Charlie Duskin by Cath Crowley

Chasing Charlie Duskin by Cath Crowley

Pages: 240
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: April 28th, 2005
IBSN: 9780330421607

Charlie Duskin is running. Fleeing from failures and memories and friends who have given up on her. And she's not only running, she's chasing things - like a father who will talk to her, friends who don't think she's as invisible as a piece of cling wrap, and an experience with a boy in which she doesn't look like an idiot. But Charlie Duskin is about to have the best summer of her life. She's about to meet a friend who'll change her forever. She's about to fall in love. She just doesn't know it yet.

This book may be better known by the title it was published under in the US, A Little Wanting Song. It tells us the story of Charlie, a sweet muffled melody to everyone else's boisterous song, finding her voice.

Narrated in the dual perspectives of Charlie and Rose, the different outlooks on the characters and events give us added depth. We understand how things that happened or were said affected people in different ways, we can see our characters' personalities complemented and juxtaposed -- all due to alternating perspectives. A perfect example of when this definitely added something to the story.

Both characters narrated with distinct and relatable voices in the beautiful, ornate writing style that I was already familiar with from Cath Crowley's Graffiti Moon. Full of vivid imagery and poetic metaphors and similes, every other sentence makes you let out an involuntary and happy sigh.

The characters were all -- every last one -- fleshed out and realistic. I was especially taken with Charlie, whose tone was so soft and sad that I wanted to just big her a huge hug and then hold a microphone up to her so everybody else could hear her, too. Both her and Rose had clear character arcs that intersected in a lovely moment near the conclusion as they began to become real friends.

With narrators that escape the page and seem more real than fictional, beautiful prose, and relatable and touching character development, Chasing Charlie Duskin is a must-read for fans of contemporary or coming-of-age novels.

I give Chasing Charlie Duskin a 5 out of 5.

Review: Fury by Shirley Marr

Fury by Shirley Marr

Pages: 277
Publisher: Black Dog Books
Published: May 1st, 2010
IBSN: 9781742031323

Let me tell you my story.
Not just the facts I know you want to hear.
If I’m going to tell you my story,
I’m telling it my way. 

Strap yourself in...

Eliza Boans has everything.
A big house.
A great education.
A bright future.

So why is she sitting in a police station confessing to murder?

Fury was a surprising, mysterious and admirably different novel.

What was surprising about Fury was how such an initially snobbish and mean character could grow on you. I didn't like Eliza at the beginning, but I began to appreciate her more as her story slowly unfolded. In the way she treated her friends, you could see her fear of being left and, eventually, deep loyalty. Her extreme personality was so apparent in her voice, and the way she admitted her flaws made her relatable.

The narration made me feel as though Eliza was retelling the events to me personally. Her distinct and loud voice made her feel like a real person, like a friend telling me what had happened. As she grew on me, I became more and more invested in her story -- and even some of the background characters' -- that I was furiously turning the pages, trying to figure out why.

The way the characters developed was amazing. That I could go from being irritated by them to feeling sympathetic and heartbroken for them really surprised me. There was depth revealed in them that wasn't immediately obvious, but made you realise you were wrong about them all along.

The plot was full of suspense, and the way Eliza revealed her story had you constantly thinking you had it figured out before being taken on a completely new path. Her retelling left the events in something like an organised mess that was almost impossible to sort out.

Overall, it was a stunningly unique and compelling debut. I look forward to reading more books in Shirley Marr's engaging style.

I give Fury a 4 out of 5.