Devilish
Maureen Johnson
SUMMARY: All Jane Jarvis wants to do is survive senior year at St. Teresa's Preparatory School for Girls and carry her best friend Allison Concord along with her. Jane and Allison have always been a little bit too unique and unusual to be in the popular crowd at St. Teresa's. But they've been together and so far, that's been enough. However, after Allison has one publicly embarrassing moment too many, she comes to school transformed. Suddenly, Ally doesn't need Jane to protect her; instead she's got the perfect new hair and wardrobe and will barely speak to Jane. Meanwhile Jane seems to have picked up a unusually serious and knowledgeable freshman stalker named Owen and Allison has started dating Jane's ex-boyfriend. Soon, Owen helps Jane discover the unbelievable truth: her best friend has sold her soul to a demon. Now it's up to Jane to try her best to save Allison and stop the mysterious Poodle Prom from changing the world as she knows it forever in the most negative of ways.
ONESMARTCUPCAKE SAYS: After my introduction to Maureen Johnson's fiction in The Bermudez Triangle, I was pretty sure I would enjoy basically anything she wrote. So far, my suspicions have been confirmed. Devilish was a delightful reading experience, portraying the horrors of high school with supernatural twist. Jane makes a great narrator, with her smart and sarcastic observations and her heartfelt determination to rescue her friend. I loved her spiky hair, her sometimes equally prickly disposition, and her attempts to remain logical in the face of bizarre situation. She's spunky but also human in her fears and small weaknesses.
Johnson does a great job of balancing the supernatural aspects of her narrative with the more everyday, earthly aspects. She crafts an interesting and darkly humorous world where Hell is structured like any other big corporation and the boy's school across the street is a former satanic temple. Lanalee, a demon working her way up the evil corporate ladder, is the ideal antagonist for the story; she offers people escape from the pain of being different or unhappy in exchange for their souls and so is a villain that fits in perfectly with the desperate world of high school. She's confident and cruelly manipulative, making her suited to lure in girls like Allison, whose own lack of confidence triples with every embarrassment. Plus she uses cupcakes in her evil schemes, which just adds a new layer of amusement for me at least!
At its root, Devilish is a story about friendship and the value of individuality. It prompts questions about what values or people are worth fighting for. The novel highlights the very real pain of feeling like a freak and power of feeling like an insider. In the end, Jane and Allison's friendship becomes the key motivation for both girls to fight against the seduction of having a perfect life in order to have their own lives instead.
In Devilish, Maureen Johnson combines dark humor and good characters in a smart and fantastic story with definite heart. If you're looking for a fun quality read, pick this one up asap!
4/5 STARS
Hello again! Now for my second In My Mailbox post ever! Yay! IMM is a wonderful meme in which bloggers post about the books they have gotten that week via mail/bookstore/library and it is hosted by Story Siren at her great blog. For more information, look here. So, without further ado, here are my 'mailbox' books for this past week:
From the library:
Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken
Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount White
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
The God Box by Alex Sanchez
In the mail:
Olivia by Ian Falconer
The library books are to be read and then reviewed here, for both personal interest and for the GLBT Challenge and the Debut Authors Challenge. Olivia is the last book I've gotten for my Children's Resources class.
Meanwhile, coming up this week on the blog: my Mockingjay review (finally!) as well as reviews of both Devilish and No and Me. And hopefully at least one other review, of one of the books above!
If I Stay
Gayle Forman
SUMMARY: When Mia came down to breakfast that morning, snow flakes were still fluttering down outside and the voice on the radio was announcing the cancellation of school. With her beloved cello stuck at school, Mia can't practice. Her parents decide to use the day off to visit friends; Mia and her brother Teddy willingly pile into the car with them and the four set off as the snow already begins to melt. As they finally shift the radio back to the classical music station and Beethoven's Cello Sonata no. 3 begins to play, a truck comes out of nowhere and crashes into the car. Suddenly Mia is standing beside her broken body in the snow as the sonata miraculously plays on from the destroyed vehicle's intact radio. Her parents are dead. Before Mia can find Teddy, the paramedics arrive to take her severely injured body to the hospital. Compelled by the utter strangeness of her situation, Mia follows. Over the next few days, Mia must make the ultimate choice: will she let herself go or will she stay?
ONESMARTCUPCAKE THINKS: I first began reading this book several months ago, when I picked it up in a store and then couldn't put it down for several minutes. I forced myself to place it back on the shelf, however, because at that point I was deep into senior paper land and had to spend my spare reading time on literary criticism about Victorian novels. But I picked it up again at the library this summer and sped through it in about a day. If I Stay is lovely and evocative work which delves into the delicate and difficult questions of mortality: what control do we have over our death and what is worth staying alive for?
The novel shifts between Mia's current state after the accident and the significant and insignificant moments of her past that have shaped her relationships with her family, friends, and boyfriend. Mia's voice is distinctive and recognizably realistic. Her quiet but powerful passion for music, her occasional sense of separation from her former rock 'n roll parents and punk rocker boyfriend Adam, and her concerns about life after high school-all these basic facets build together through the shifting narrative to illustrate Mia in her complexity and humanity. The details of Mia's reactions and experiences in both time frames allow the reader to become intimately connected to Mia and the circle of people surrounding her. Even only a few pages into the novel, I felt as though I knew the characters, especially Mia, and so I felt every pain and twist in her brief but intense journey along with her.
The relationships between Mia and her parents, her best friend, her grandparents, her brother, and her boyfriend are well-drawn and realistic in their complexity. Mia and Adam's relationship in particular was enjoyable to follow; it grew organically and went beyond the flush of first love to the complications of mature affection. Forman's lyrical language beautifully evokes the genuine passion between the two without shifting into melodrama or overwrought teen romance.
If I Stay is a short novel but its brevity contributes to its emotional impact. Forman's spare but poetic prose expresses a wide range of emotions and experiences with honesty and frankness. Through her elegant writing, the reader is immediately drawn into the frightened and confused mind of a seventeen-year-old girl on the verge of losing everything. The lyricism of the text seems to echo the large role music plays throughout the narrative, emphasizing that while the decision Mia faces is universal, the story remains that of an individual-a vital young woman for whom music represents all the pain and joy of life.
Gayle Forman has written a small book that packs a big punch. Her characters could step off the page and her beautiful writing is a pleasure to read. Moreover, If I Stay marries serious questions about mortality with the concrete reality of human relationships and emotions.
4/5 STARS
Welcome to my first ever In My Mailbox post! Yay! IMM is a fabulous meme begun and hosted by The Story Siren at her wonderful blog in which bloggers post about the books they have received that week via mail/library/book-store. For more info, go here. My post this week will be larger than usual because I am starting grad school classes on Monday and so several more books for my Children's Resources class came in :)
So here's what I got this week:
So I bought and received in the mail the following:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Home by Jeannie Baker
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos
The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
The Hunger Games trilogy was a long desired personal buy and receiving Mockingjay Friday afternoon was one of the highlights of my summer! The review will be up soon but I'll give you a clue now: I really, really liked it :) The other four books are for grad school but I hope to review some of them as well as the other 'school' books I read over the coming months.
From the library, I got:
No and Me by Delphine de Vigan
Devilish by Maureen Johnson
I'll be reading and reviewing both of those books this week, baring natural disaster or academic overload :)
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend
Emily Horner
SUMMARY: Cass and Julia had been best friends since they were kids; even Julia discovering her theatrical destiny at drama camp and getting a boyfriend hadn't changed that. Throughout their junior year, Julia claimed to be at work on a secret project. But before she could reveal it to Cass or her drama club friends, Julia was killed in a car accident. Still reeling from the unexpected tragedy, they discover that the secret project was in fact a musical titled "Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squads" and led by Julia's devastated boyfriend Oliver, the group decides to make Julia's dream come true by producing the musical. But Cass has never felt like she truly fit in with Julia's theater crowd. And she doesn't think she can take a summer of painting sets and hearing Julia in every line of the play. Especially when Heather, the girl who bullied her in middle school, has somehow been cast in the lead role. So, Cass sets out to undertake the cross-country trip she and Julia had planned--alone on her touring bike with Julia's ashes in tow. When Cass returns in August, she realizes that she's changed in big ways. But then so has Heather. But through all the drama, the show must go on.
ONESMARTCUPCAKE THINKS: This book has been on my 'to read' list for quite some time. The title intrigued me and then seeing that it could work towards my Debut Authors Challenge pushed it way up on my list. Overall, I enjoyed A Love Story. The novel is divided into two distinct alternating settings: the recent past of Cass' bike journey and the current events since her return. While I normally don't mind such a format, I felt it worked less effectively in this novel. Although both sections were significant in exploring Cass's development through the course of the story, the shifts between them occasionally felt awkward and sudden. However, I did enjoy the gradual revelations about Cass's growth as the two portions of the story played out simultaneously. The concept of a solo cross country trip on a bike is a bit of a unique take on the classic road trip story and Horner utilizes details about this style of the travel to tie the reader into Cass's experience more closely. Also, the solo and self-reliant aspects of biking allows for an extra emphasis on self-discovery and reflection on Cass's part. The obvious connection between Cass' physical actions and her emotional journey shines strongly with the more transparently physical bike as well.
I liked that Cass's process of understanding and embracing her sexuality worked hand in hand with her coming to terms with Julia's death. The difficulties of grief and identity development are interconnected in the story of Cass' entrance to the complex adult world. I also enjoyed the romance between Cass and Heather. Their rehabilitated friendship blossoms into a new chance at a happy, open relationship for each girl. Also, their contrasting pasts reveal two different but equally challenging paths to self-acceptance.
Overall, A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend was an enjoyable and touching read about the sometimes painful process of growing up.
3/5 STARS
Boy Toy
Barry Lyga
SUMMARY: For the past five years, Josh Mendel has worked hard to be invisible by doing the easy things: being the best hitter on the baseball team, continuing his streak of straight A's, and hanging out with his best friend Zik. However, as hard as he tried, Josh knows that he will never be invisible because he has a secret: when he was twelve, his seventh-grade history teacher Evelyn Sherman sexually abused him. But, after the trial and the online leak of Mrs. Sherman's detailed confession, Josh's secret is far from truly hidden or private. All Josh needs to do is survive long enough to escape town on a college scholarship. On top of his recent college worries and his long-term anger control issues, he has to deal with the sudden reemergence of Rachel, an old friend he thought he'd lost forever ad the most important baseball game of his life. Worst of all, Eve has been freed from prison early. Can Josh ever find a way to understand the events from five years ago and so start running towards his future instead of away from his past?
ONESMARTCUPCAKE THINKS: Holy moly, did this book blow me away! Boy Toy is a powerful, upsetting, and compelling force of a novel. I assumed from the subject matter (sexual abuse between a teacher and a student) that it would be emotional and intense book but I was not prepared for the reality. Boy Toy is a very well crafted novel from its construction to its excellent writing. It manages to pack a big emotional and intellectual punch without ever becoming melodramatic or maudlin. The novel makes a great attempt to deal honestly with the tangled and complex reality of sexual abuse, from a perspective that frequently remains unheard: that of a young male victim.
Why is Boy Toy so great? One huge reason is that Josh is such a wonderfully formed character. He combines intense anger and cynicism with vulnerability; his narration contains sarcastic bite and wit as well as deep unhappiness, fear, and joy. Josh's three-dimensionality makes his story even more heart-breaking and powerful for a reader. From the first chapter, I felt as though I knew Josh; his complexity makes him real and knowable in such a way that I felt as though I was experiencing the emotional roller coaster with him. His confusion, fear, and desire all come through with clarity and potency. The secondary characters were equally well-crafted, especially the two pivotal women in Josh's life: Rachel and Eve.
As I said above, Boy Toy is also brilliant for taking on such difficult material in such a respectful yet honest way. Lyga does not shrink away from somewhat graphic or harsh scenes but instead uses these situations to place the readers even more firmly in Josh's head. The unflinching look at the after effects of sexual abuse demonstrates that old writing motto: show, don't tell. Through Josh's narration, Lyga shows the harsh and unsettling reality of a victim's long recovery process; he does not need to tell us about the many ways in which Josh is struggling because they are clearly illustrated through the plot and Josh's internal commentary.
So, to conclude: I could not put this book down. I read for a few hours straight, completely immersed in Josh's world and psyche. The whole time I was cheering for Josh to overcome his many challenges. Overall, reading Boy Toy was a powerful experience and I recommend the book to older teens and adults who are looking for a great story with emotional and intellectual impact. Also, Barry Lyga speaks eloquently about his reasoning behind writing Boy Toy at his website's FAQ page.
5/5 STARS
Holy smokes blog-world! Two posts in one day! It's a miracle. Which will likely never happen again. But for now I bask in my momentary sense of accomplishment.
So I am blogging again today because I’m joining yet another challenge extremely late. But I’m going try my darndest to complete it anyway! This challenge is the 2010 Debut Author Challenge hosted by awesome YA book blogger Story Siren! The general guidelines are:
-read at least 12 Young Adult or Middle Grade novels from debut authors (note: these authors may have published adult or children’s books before but these must their first YA or MG novels)
-all are welcome to join in, including non-bloggers
-the challenge runs from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010
-the novels should be debuting in 2010
So I’m going to do my best to read at least 12 debut novels in the next few months before the deadline hits! Getting a hold of the books might be a tricky sometimes but I am moving to Pittsburgh in a few weeks for grad school and their awesome public library system should help me out in that part of the mission. Below is my list. I would love to get through all of them by December 31, 2010 but there’s a strong possibility that will not happen. But I will read at least a dozen of these awesome, exciting new books! YAY! I love new books.
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken
Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount White
Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
A Love Story: Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner
Boys, Wolves, and Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler
Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards
The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
Deception by Lee Nichols
Sea by Heidi R. Kling
The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk
Happyface by Stephen Emond
Crossing by Andrew Xia Fukuda
No and Me by Delphine de Vigan
Tell Me A Secret by Holly Cupala
YOU by Charles Benoit
Thanks again to Story Siren for hosting this great challenge!
