 Losers in Space
Author: John Barnes
Publication Date: 4/12/12
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Blurb: It is the year 2129 . . . and fame is all that matters
Susan and her friends are celebutantes. Their lives are powered by media awareness, fed by engineered meals, and underscored by cynicism. Everyone has a rating; the more viewers who ID you, the better. So Susan and her almost-boyfriend Derlock cook up a surefire plan: the nine of them will visit a Mars-bound spaceship and stow away. Their survival will be a media sensation, boosting their ratings across the globe. There's only one problem: Derlock is a sociopath. Breakneck narrative, pointed cultural commentary, warm heart, accurate science, a kickass heroine, and a ticking clock . . . who could ask for more?
Review:
Losers in Space is essentially a one long test of how much of a SF nerd you are and how "hard" you prefer your SF. Evidently, I am far less nerdy than I had always thought, judging by how little of this book's SF-ness I enjoyed.
Now, I don't want to be unfair to John Barnes, he warns upfront about the nature of his novel. In a Note for the Interested, #0, at the beginning of Losers in Space, he says straight, in a funny and clever way, that his novel is "hard SF" and, being that,"it uses one form or another of what we called infodumps: lectures about the science, the imaginary world, and so on, either directly or by having characters explain things to each other. (How many characters does it take to change a lightbulb in a hard SF story? One to do it, and one to say, 'As you know, Bob, a lightbulb consists of a tungsten filament in an inert-gas-filled glass inclosure...')" According to Barnes, "people who geek on just knowing stuff, either about the real science or the fictional future, love infodumps, but infodumps are boring obstacles for readers who just want to get on with the story." (p. 2) So, to solve this problem, to compromise, Barnes separated all infodumps into sections called Notes for the Interested, that can be skipped if you are not into science.
Unfortunately, this trick doesn't manage to save Losers in Space from the over-infodumpness problem. Even if you do skip all Notes (I did, almost all of them, except those that pertained to the worldbuilding and social issues. Can you blame me for not wanting to know about reaction masses, frequencies, recalculations of spaceship courses, etc?), still, ALL CHARACTERS in the novel talk to each other in a form infodumpy tuitorials. Every conversation starts in a way as to encourage that "As you know, Bob..." long-winded and boring lecture:
Pretend like I don't know anything, because I don't. What were the "couple little things"? (to lead to a lecture on how to hook up an antenna)
Okay, you'd better explain it to me (to lead to a 2-page lecture on universal encryption), etc., etc.
I am not sure if Barnes was trying to be funny here, adhering to this hard SF canon and making a joke out of it and ended up taking it too far, or if he genuinely thought that it was impossible to write a novel that was both entertaining and scientifically solid. But I know this - Losers in Space could have been a much better book without all of that excessive, awkwardly and bluntly introduced science. Because the story itself is good.
In 2129, the world reaches a basically utopian state. Poverty, hunger, wars, diseases are all eradicated. Robotic labor supports and allows for a striving human population that has literally EVERYTHING, every person is entitled to and receives a social minimum (the 2010 equivalent of 10 million dollars a year), for which they don't have to work at all. Only a very small percentage of population can earn more than the social minimum, by performing work that can't be done by robots - art, competitive athletics, science, teaching, or entertaining. This last field is the most attractive and the easiest to enter, or so it seems. The main characters of the novel, losers, who don't show any particular skills, want to become celebrities, and, encouraged by their sociopathic leader, decide to graduate from recording nudity, sex, drugs and partying (of course, those are the most popular ways to earn fame, don't you know?) by getting on a spaceship and tricking its crew into getting them on Mars. This way, these kids can get extensive news coverage and come back to Earth as celebrities. Of course, not everything goes according to the plan, which is no surprise, considering losers have a psycho in their midst.
Again, I will repeat, this novel could have been such a riot, if Barnes didn't choose to force the infodumps down the readers' throats. They simply suffocate the social commentary (what does happen to people in a world of uniform prosperity and leisure? how far will media go in an age of such a rampant entertainment demand?) and the characters. While they were lecturing each other, I almost forgot that Glisters is an amateur pornographer, that Fleeta is a drug user who fried her brains by taking happistuff, an illegal substance that keeps you in a state of constant euphoria, that Derlock is a high-level psycho. There is such a wealth of awesomeness to explore here, hypothetically. Instead, I spent most of my reading time skimming the boring and searching for entertainment. What a pity.
2.5/5 stars
 The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker, #2)
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publication Date: 5/1/12
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Blurb: In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man--a bioengineered war beast named Tool--who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.
This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi's highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure.
Review:
The Drowned Cities' predecessor (and loose companion) Ship Breaker has already won Printz and was short-listed for National Book Award, and rightfully so. But I am wondering right now - was it not a tad premature to give Paolo Bacigalupi all these accolades? Because, frankly, The Drowned Cities is a far superior novel in comparison and, I guess, it is hard to expect similar acknowledgment of it, even if it is deserved? It appears, most of these awards are given once and the awarded authors are then promptly ignored? I wouldn't want this novel to be overlooked. The Drowned Cities is a completely different story from Ship Breaker. Paolo's intent for Ship Breaker was to write a boy book, with action, adventure and explosions, and with a little bit of a moral lesson about bravery and loyalty. But I doubt The Drowned Cities was written with the same agenda in mind. Or if it was, the final novel far exceeded its original intent. The Drowned Cities is a heavy, brutal, unequivocally message-driven story that no one will dismiss as a simple entertainment. This is a story of war. The kind of war that is playing out in many parts of our world right now. The setting of The Drowned Cities is futuristic/dystopian (slightly post-apocalyptic?) - natural resources are scarce, global warming has caused a climate change and extensive flooding of many parts of the planet, US is torn by civil war the reasons for which no one can any longer remember, China is a mega power that attempts to act as a peacekeeper, there are genetically augmented "people" who do rich men's bidding in all spheres of life from war combat to sexual services (this later "sphere" is not actually written into this YA novel, but a part of the larger The Windup Girl universe). But there is nothing in this fictional world that, on a human level, is not already happening in reality. And what is happening is that people are murdering each other for no good reason, children are being recruited to advance various war lords' convoluted political and financial agendas, livelihoods are being destroyed and citizens killed and exploited by the same soldiers who claim to protect and serve them.  Bacigalupi writes about many war-related things in this novel - the futility of peacekeeping efforts, the pointlessness of civil wars. It raises questions of what should one do in a time of war - fight and spread violence? endure and survive at any cost, even by sacrificing one's humanity? or try to simply escape? But the major theme of The Drowned Cities, in my mind, is the place of children in war. They are its victims, they are its bloody players, they are its survivors. The part of the story that struck me the most is the portrayal of the evolution (or birth) of a child soldier. This novel is awfully reminiscent of Ishmael Beah's personal account of becoming a boy soldier. It is astonishing how easy it is to dehumanize a child and make him (or her) a senseless torturer and killer. Reading The Drowned Cities was an immensely intense experience for me. Every time I put the book down and came back to it later, it only took me a few pages to put me again and again into a high level of anxiety and fear for its characters. Not many YA books can keep me in suspense these days, but The Drowned Cities did. With that said, I want to assure you, the book never becomes a tearjerker or tragedy porn or shocking for the shock's sake. It is an honest, real and raw portrayal of what happens every day in the countries we don't care and don't want to think about. If Mockingjay or Chaos Walking Trilogy are your favorite reads, The Drowned Cities is your next natural reading choice.5/5 stars
Many of you (and I’m guessing possibly even the author himself) will laugh me off this small stage when I confess that I find Paolo Bacigalupi’s novels to be incredibly hopeful. Seriously. Now, admittedly, this is an author who writes all about the end of the world as we know it and what we’ve done to bring ourselves here. The Drowned Cities is about the irrevocable loss of childhood innocence, the harsh realities of survival, and the grasping, selfish nature of humankind. His novels are not for everyone, and trust me when I say that they are dark.And yet, somehow these dark, twisted, eerily prophetic tales make me feel lifted. Maybe it’s because, set against such bleak settings, the hope stands out even more acutely. In the very harsh world of The Drowned Cities, it stands out in moments of sacrifice and resistance: in all the moments when these characters fight to rise out of the grim world they were born into. It’s in the reckless bravery of one damaged child to save another. It’s in the momentary resistance of one hardened teenage soldier to years of violence and trauma. It’s in the deceptively foolish actions of a peaceful man. It’s the strength within one born and bred killer to choose another path. These moments are brief and often fruitless, but they're powerful within the scope of a single life. But that’s not the entirety of it. It’s hard for me to articulate this properly, but there’s a certain much broader, more ambiguous hope that I think Paolo Bacigalupi paints so incredibly well. It’s a hope that stems from our complete and utter insignificance. We crawl around this Earth, warring with each other and consuming every resource, leaving waste and pollution behind. And yet, the Earth goes on. The Earth finds ways to thrive despite us, because of us. It adapts. Even as we are molding this world into an incompatible home for ourselves, we are remaking it for something, someone else. We are so arrogant; we feel so separate, but the truth is that we aren’t above nature. We are a part of it. We are a small piece of this powerful, wild system that can’t ever be controlled. Even when we try to control it, it slips right out of our hands. We are such a miniscule, temporary part of this Earth’s history. All we have is this one brief moment to live the best we can and to try our hardest not to be a part of the violence and destruction. And even if we fail, this world will go on without us, just as it has for millennia. For some reason, I find a lot of hope in that. What do all of my ramblings about hope have to do with this book? Everything, says my addled brain. Or maybe nothing. Maybe you’ll have an entirely different feeling, but I can almost guarantee that you’ll feel something for this intense book and its characters. Just read it. If you don’t trust me (understandable – this review is completely unhelpful), scroll back up and let Tatiana’s much more lucid words convince you. Perfect Musical Pairing
Nine Inch Nails - The Good Soldier This is a very chilling song, told from the point of view of a soldier as he walks through his destroyed home, stepping over bodies and trying to convince himself that what he's doing is the right thing.
"I am trying to see
I am trying to believe
This is not where I should be
I am trying to believe
Blood hardens in the sand
Cold metal in my hand
Hope you understand the way that things are gonna be
There's nowhere left to hide, 'cause God is on our side
I keep telling myself."
4.5/5 Stars
 Shadow and Bone (The Grisha, #1)
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publication Date: 6/5/12
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Blurb (GR): Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha… and the secrets of her heart.
Review:
It is alright, if you are into fantasy lite. I, on the other hand, am a little weary of this lightish, breezy and superficial entertainment. Give me something juicier, something more thoughtful, something more sophisticated.
 UK cover Shadow and Bone is a decent book. Bardugo's writing style is easy and engaging. The plot is developed enough to masquerade the fact that the biggest chunk of it is the usual boarding school fare with makeovers, mean girl drama, petty rivalries, balls and a bit of steamy(ish) romance with the hottest guy on the block. Bardugo even succeeds at creating an "exotic" backdrop for her story - an early 20th century Russia-inspired fantasy land of Rivka. Even with my issues concerning the accuracy of everything borrowed from Russian culture, I will still say that the author manages to create a very distinct atmosphere in her novel. And speaking of this atmosphere, Russian "flavor" if you will, Shadow and Bone is a rare book whose covers (both US and UK) reflect the novel's mood well, even though I find UK's tagline to be a bit misleading and melodramatic. This novel is not as romancey as the line "A dark heart. A pure soul. A love that will last forever" would imply. With that said, the reason I did not enjoy this book the way I had hoped I would is that it is just so uncomplicated and straight-forward. I have no usual complaints about Bardugo's characters and the plot. But they are familiar and well used and not very rich. These characters are very simple, void of complex emotions and motivations. Same goes for the plot and conflicts. There is no complexity to them either. The conflicts are of good/evil variety. The plot is easily predictable. Twists? What twists? I do not think Shadow and Bone is a good fit for many adult readers, unless they are in a search for going-through-the-motions sort of story with a standard "kick-ass" protagonist (I am thinking Tris from Divergent or Ismae from Grave Mercy), and they do not expect to be challenged intellectually or emotionally. Now, to the part of my review that will reflect exclusively my personal problems with this book, which will not bother 99.9% of its potential reader. Shadow and Bone is, as I mentioned earlier, a Russia-inspired fantasy. I took pains to check out Leigh Bardugo's website, to see how exactly she addressed this inspiration. Here are her words: "Ravka and its language were heavily inspired by Russia, but with a few deliberate exceptions, the words and place names in Shadow & Bone are my own invention. My goal was to keep things simple and to make sure that Ravkan words still had resonance for readers. In short, I took a lot of liberties and I hope the purists won’t beat me about the head and shoulders."Sure, I do not want to be a language nazi or anything. I can skim over Russian-sounding made-up words, even though they linguistically do not make much sense. Not every writer can be like Catherynne Valente, who embraced Russianness so fully in her Deathless, that I had to do some research to find out if she was Russian herself (she is not). But is it too much to ask of an author to at least google the actual Russian words she does use in her work? I swear, it would only take 10 minutes to research the glaring mistakes I found. For instance, if you want to give your characters Russian names, it is not that hard to find out that men and women in Russia have different variations of the same last name. Let's take the book's main character, Alina Starkov. Starkov is a masculine version of the last name. Correctly, it should be Alina Starkova. In the same way, there is another character, whose name is Ilya Morozova. The problem with this name is that Ilya is actually a male name, while the last name has a female form. In the book, Ilya Morozova is a "she." If you google "Russian last names," this information comes up in the second or third link from the top. How much time would it take to do this research? Then there is a matter of "kvas," a beverage everyone seems to get drunk on in Shadow and Bone. In reality, you can not actually get drunk consuming it. This is a non-alcoholic beverage (well, almost, it occasionally has alcohol content up to 1%) which is given to children as well as adults, like, let's say, soda. Wiki this word, I am not lying. You want to write about alcohol, use "pivo" or "braga" or "samogon," if researching that is too hard, use "vodka." And, I swear, the last example (of many on my list). The name of this trilogy - The Grisha (in the book, the Grisha are magic wielding army). Grisha is actually a short form of the male name Grigori. Come on now, no better ideas, no better words to call your magician other than this random personal name? Or "otkazat'sya," which in Bardugo's interpretation means "The Abandoned." In reality "otkazat'sya" is a verb which translates into "to refuse." That is why I am saying that even the words made up by the author make no sense, linguistically. To be sure, all these things will not bother anyone except select few, but I do not think it is too wrong to expect the author who builds her whole magical universe using Russian culture, to respect this culture enough to do a cursory google search, to give her work some appearance of credibility and care? This sloppy use of a foreign (my) culture affected my enjoyment of the novel. Shadow and Bone is not an isolated example of a lazy handling of Russian language and culture, and very often I feel very much compelled to offer authors, who choose to base their stories on Russia, my help, to at least check the spelling of the words. But then I see that they do not care to do the most basic of researches, so why should I care? To wrap this up, I do not recommend against reading this book. It is a light and engaging enough entertainment. In fact, after reading a few Goodreads reviews, it looks like many people found it to be utterly enchanting. I am glad they do. I, however, will not be back for more. 3/5 stars
 The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2)
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publication Date: 4/10/12
Publisher: Harper Collins
Blurb (GR): Maya Delaney's paw-print birthmark is the mark of what she truly is--a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly everyone else. Experiencing intense connections with the animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows it's only a matter of time before she's able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents. Now, Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they're kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home. Review:How do I put it gently? It is time for Kelley Armstrong to stop writing the same story. This cow, unfortunately, is almost dry.I know, it sounds mean, but even though I mostly enjoyed the process of reading The Calling OK, this book is pretty much the same thing as The Summoning, The Awakening, The Reckoning, The Gathering, plus a couple of short stories relating to this whole Darkest Powers series. ALL of these stories have exactly the same plot. I do not even need to read The Rising to know what will happen in it. Let's be honest, how fun can it be, to go through the same motions again and again? Yes, I was complimentary in my review of The Gathering. Even though the plot of it was transparent, the setting was fresh, the new supernatural powers were interesting, the back stories were engaging. But in The Calling, here we are again - there is nothing but running around and hiding, just like in all Darkest Powers books (especially the middle one - The Awakening). Is there anyone who has read the first trilogy who does not know where the story is going in Darkness Rising trilogy? One person? No? There is nothing but action in this book. It feels "meatless," because of the lack of background info (we already kn0w every kid who is on the run) and lack of depth. Just run, hide in the bushes, someone gets caught, rescue, run, hide in the bushes... Rinse and repeat. There are so many fortunate and unfortunate events and coincidences in The Calling that they often undermine the believability of the whole narrative. The one event that stands out in my mind is when our teens after the helicopter crash and days of wondering in the woods finally reach a public place (a restaurant), they are denied the use of a phone, because, can you believe it, they were reported dead on the news and the owner thinks these teens are just pranking her! This is just a turn of events I have a hard time swallowing. The characters and relationships are still good in this novel though, but I wish they were a part of a completely different story, unrelated to the Otherworld and Edison Group. Will I read the follow-up to The Calling? I am pretty sure I will. But if there is another trilogy, with another Project in addition to Project Genesis ( Darkest Powers trilogy) and Project Phoenix ( Darkness Rising trilogy)? No way! Six books of the same thing is more than enough. 3/5 stars
 Unraveling
Author: Elizabeth Norris
Publication Date: 4/24/12
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Blurb (GR): Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she's opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn't possible, she knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow brought her back to life. But her revival, and Ben's possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI agent father's files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what's right in front of her: Everything that's happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben's sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she's going to need to uncover Ben's secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process. From debut author Elizabeth Norris comes this shattering novel of one girl's fight to save herself, her world, and the boy she never saw coming.
Review:When I look back at Unraveling, the first word that comes to mind is "calculated." I read a fair number of commercial genre fiction and I am quite used to certain themes, plots and character archetypes being recycled over and over and over and over. It does not bother me, in general. But Unraveling was the first book that made me think, while reading it, that it had been written off of a checklist of what is currently "in" and sells well in YA market. I do not even have energy (nor a desire) to harp on how much of this novel is tediously familiar. Just a few notes: - Opening: the hero saves the heroine from dying.
- Romance: 50% instalove (see #1)/ 50% I-have-loved-you-forever. Escalates to I-can't-leave-without-you in a matter of 2-3 weeks.
- The heroine is "strong" - smart, good student, knows how stand up for herself, family caretaker, family problems, dark traumatic incident in her past of sexual nature.
- The hero is "good" - sensitive, caring, saves the heroine on multiple occasions, with floppy hair he is constantly running his hands through, crooked smile, with dark secret, fixes motorcycles, hides his smarts under a stoner persona.
- School: a class that is conveniently designed for the hero and the heroine to banter on a very intimate level, encouraged by the teacher.
- Other stock characters: stoners, slutty mean girls, stupid jocks, the heroine's best male friend (possibly gay? unclear).
- Sleeping chastely in the same bed? Yes.
etc., etc,... Is it really that hard for writers to break away from the same old, same old? Or is this what publishers are deliberately and actively seeking out? Something that fits the mold? There are a few saving graces, however, that barely keep Unraveling from the 1-star abyss, in my case, and, apparently, elevate this book to the level of a favorite, for other readers.First, it appears the author of the novel went out of her way to make sure to put all positive qualities into her characters and situations. There is no promoting of unhealthy relationships, abusive behavior, doormatedness and so on. The main characters even give small lectures along the way on the matters of dating, dangers of motorcycle riding, drunk driving, honorable way of hacking into the school records, etc. Second, while I was not at any point enamored with the characters, I still thought the book was a very brisk read. The writing has a sense of urgency to it. The chapters are very short and represent a countdown to a very important, possibly life-threatening event. So you just tear through these pages, like there is no tomorrow. Third, this novel starts out as a paranormal (after all, the hero magically brings the heroine back from death), but eventually turns into a science fiction story (SF is on the rise, people!, that is why it is in this book, I am betting). Several very positive reviews of Unraveling I have read call this SF bend unique, and readers seem to like it a lot. But I beg to differ here. Maybe because I do read a lot of SF and I have very recently read another (much better) YA SF with the same ideas (I will not name it so that I do not spoil the surprise), but I cannot seriously call Unraveling a good SF novel. There is hardly any science in Unraveling, the SF "hook" goes generally undeveloped. As for how much science there is actually in this book, I would say close to zero. You can expect nothing more, if the characters in this novel say: "I've spent hours going over it in my head. I was wrong when I told A. no one else knows the science. Both B. and C. know the science..." (identities concealed to avoid spoilers). So that is the extent of scientific knowledge in Unraveling. There are no specifics, just that elusive "science" that characters "know" and "do." Readers less jaded and less demanding are likely to enjoy Unraveling more. The book's pace is snappy and the story itself packs all the "right" elements. But there is just no originality in it, no life in its characters, no true inspiration behind it. An aggregate of bluntly "popular" pieces carefully put together. 2.5/5 stars
 Boy21
Author: Matthew Quick
Publication Date: 3/5/12
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Blurb (GR): Basketball has always been an escape for Finley. He lives in broken-down Bellmont, a town ruled by the Irish mob, drugs, violence, and racially charged rivalries. At home, his dad works nights and Finley is left alone to take care of his disabled grandfather. He's always dreamed of somehow getting out, but until he can, putting on that number 21 jersey makes everything seem okay.
Russ has just moved to the neighborhood. The life of this teen basketball phenom has been turned upside down by tragedy. Cut off from everyone he knows, he won't pick up a basketball, and yet answers only to the name Boy21—taken from his former jersey number.
As their final year of high school brings these two boys together, "Boy21" may turn out to be the answer they both need. Matthew Quick, the acclaimed author of Sorta Like a Rock Star, brings readers a moving novel about hope, recovery, and redemption.
Review:
There is not nearly enough YA books about friendships. For some strange reason, romantic relationships are promoted as more important. While I agree that at some point in life you do meet that special person who becomes your partner in everything, up until that point it is friends that help you out, support you, accompany you through life.
Friendship, the healing, supporting, non-judgmental type of friendship, is what Boy21 is about. Or is supposed to be about.
I love the idea of this novel. Imagine Finley, a reserved high school senior with some serious darkness in his past, whose only friend is his girlfriend/soulmate Erin. Finley's most favorite occupation, his therapy of sorts, is basketball. His goal for his last school year is just to be on the team and play well. Enter Boy21, another damaged young boy, a rising basketball star, who suffers from a mental breakdown after the death of his parents. Finley is entrusted to guard and partner with Boy21 in school. And also guide him back into playing basketball, because, among other things, what Boy21 had lost is his passion for the game.
There is a very interesting conflict here: Should Finley encourage Boy21 to play, knowing that he will for sure take his place on the team? Should he sacrifice his own dreams in order to save his new friend, because maybe basketball indeed has a power to heal Boy21, bring him back from the imaginary escape world he exists in now? What is more important - your friend's well-being or your own ?
To my disappointment, this conflict never really comes to the front of this novel, never develops to its full potential, never impacts the characters as strongly as it could and should have . The book that was supposed to be about Boy21 (you would assume, judging by the title) and about the friendship bonds between the two boys is diluted and often overshadowed by the side plots - Irish mob, Finley's girlfriend and family problems. In the end, only maybe 25% of the book is about friendship, and the rest - just everything else. I feel like Boy21 is a case of the writer having his fingers in too many (idea) pots. The main point of the story is just lost.
 I do not want to take away from the merits of this novel. I admire Quick and some passages in Boy21 made my eyes tingle. But I do think this books lacks clearer focus and a better overreaching story arc. As often is with these things, I am a little baffled by the overwhelmingly positive critical reception of Boy21. It has already received some serious starred reviews from several major professional publication. His previous YA novel - Sorta Like a Rock Star is a much more accomplished work, in my opinion, and yet it went almost unnoticed. Do I recommend Boy21? Yes, but with some reservations. However, I do wholeheartedly recommend Matthew Quick's Sorta Like a Rock Star.3/5 stars
 The Wicked and the Just
Author: J. Anderson Coats
Publication Date: 4/17/12
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Blurb (GR): Cecily’s father has ruined her life. He’s moving them to occupied Wales, where the king needs good strong Englishmen to keep down the vicious Welshmen. At least Cecily will finally be the lady of the house. Gwenhwyfar knows all about that house. Once she dreamed of being the lady there herself, until the English destroyed the lives of everyone she knows. Now she must wait hand and foot on this bratty English girl. While Cecily struggles to find her place amongst the snobby English landowners, Gwenhwyfar struggles just to survive. And outside the city walls, tensions are rising ever higher—until finally they must reach the breaking point. Review:How much do you know about Wales? 13th century Wales? Invasion of Wales by England? Nothing? Do not fret, neither did I before reading The Wicked and the Just. I can claim to know a little tiny bit about the history of tension between Scotland and England, thanks to Diana Gabaldon and the tidbits of historical information she puts in between hunky Jamie Fraser's kilted adventures in Outlander books. But about Wales I knew absolutely nothing. Now I can thank J. Anderson Coats for educating me on this subject and simultaneously entertaining me. The Wicked and the Just is set during a very pivotal period in Welsh history - the country has been occupied by England for a few years and the intensity of oppression is so high that the discontent within Welsh population is reaching a boiling point.
 Caernarvon. I would live there if 13th century wasn't so unsanitary Enter Cecily, an English girl brought by her father to the wilderness of Wales to live in a walled town of Caernarvon. Surrounded by snobbish fellow Englishmen and "barbarous" Welshmen, Cecily spends her time being bratty, cunning, strong-headed, and lamenting lack of suitable beaus and dresses. With all her spoiled girl attitude, Cecily is actually quite funny. (Although I have to say, while I enjoyed her humor, I thought it had a very modern pattern to it.)
Cecily's Welsh servant girl Gwenhwyfar (we will call her Gwinny, because I have no clue whatsoever how to pronounce her full name) has a completely different set of challenges, e.g., how not to get raped by rough Englishmen or not to die of hunger. Her voice is bitter, vengeance-hungry and defiant.
The conflict between Wales and England is portrayed wonderfully through these two perspectives. Objectively, the main weakness of The Wicked and the Just is that its plot is virtually non-existent. If you do not mind me being technical, what I mean is that rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement all happen during the last 50 pages of the novel. Exposition, on the other hand, takes up the rest 80% of the book. Now, if the narrators of The Wicked and the Just were less charismatic, such a narrative structure could have been detrimental to the story. But both Cecily and Gwinny are two very interesting girls and the slice-of-life/everyday minutiae approach works effectively here. I was not bored by the lengthy exposition at all, too busy laughing at and wanting to strangle Cecily and being horrified by the details of Gwinny's life. If I have not made it clear yet, I enjoyed The Wicked and the Just and I am also thankful that quality historical fiction is, while rare, is still being written by thoughtful and caring of historical accuracy authors. P.S. If you want to learn a little more of all things Welsh, check out Jo's Welsh Week post. All kinds of useful info there, from pictures of reading (!) muscly Welsh rugby players to how to pronounce something that is spelled like this: Ysgytlaeth. Plus, a guest post by J. Anderson Coats herself. 4/5 stars
 Girl Meets Boy: Because There Are Two Sides to Every Story
Editor: Kelly Milner Halls
Publication Date: 12/28/11
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Blurb (GR): What do guys and girls really think? Twelve of the most dynamic and engaging YA authors writing today team up for this one-of-a-kind collection of "he said/she said" stories-he tells it from the guy's point of view, she tells it from the girl's. These are stories of love and heartbreak. There's the good-looking jock who falls for a dangerous girl, and the flipside, the toxic girl who never learned to be loved; the basketball star and the artistic (and shorter) boy she never knew she wanted; the gay boy looking for love online and the girl who could help make it happen. Each story in this unforgettable collection teaches us that relationships are complicated-because there are two sides to every story. Review: I cannot start my review of Girl Meets Boy without commenting on its cover. I mean, seriously, look at it! This photo must be the most awkward I have EVER seen. Even Jim C. Hines probably would not undertake replicating this pose, because in which universe is it comfortable, never mind romantic? This cover would have worked if it were designed to be ironic, but alas, this is not the case. It is meant to be taken seriously. As you can see from the blurb, the anthology's goal was to present a series of stories about (romantic) relationships from the points of view of both parties involved. In theory, considering how differently relationships can be perceived by the participants, this is a very strong concept for a short story collection. However, such approach to story telling, I think, works only if the points of view are drastically dissimilar and do not rehash the same events, etc. There are not many authors that can pull off the double narrator structure ( How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr comes to mind as an example of success). More often than not, what happens in many such works, especially romances, is that two narrators are used only for doubling the dosage of love angst and lusting. Unfortunately, only a couple of story pairs in Girl Meets Boy manage to use the anthology's concept effectively, in those stories people do, in fact, view the relationships they are in differently. The rest of the double stories follow the weaker route, with happy romances viewed exactly in the same light by the couple. In those cases, only the first, original, stories in the pairs are worth reading, and second stories often appear to be fanfictiony rehashes of the same thing. Why such a high rating from me then? Well, even though the high concept of the anthology isn't explored to the fullest in Girl Meets Boy, the collection itself is pretty strong. The contributors are almost uniformly critically acclaimed and their stories are generally well written and offer a good variety of romantic teen relationships - you have happy and dangerous romances, couples from different racial, ethnic, religious backgrounds, straight and gay couples. Diversity and quality of writing is what distinguishes Girl Meets Boy from many other YA anthologies. 3.5/5 stars
 After the Snow
Author: S.D. Crockett
Publishing Date: 3/27/12
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Blurb (GR): Fifteen-year-old Willo was out hunting when the trucks came and took his family away. Left alone in the snow, Willo becomes determined to find and rescue his family, and he knows just who to talk with to learn where they are. He plans to head across the mountains and make Farmer Geraint tell him where his family has gone. But on the way across the mountain, he finds Mary, a refugee from the city, whose father is lost and who is starving to death. The smart thing to do would be to leave her alone - he doesn't have enough supplies for two or the time to take care of a girl - but Willo just can't do it. However, with the world trapped in an ice age, the odds of them surviving on their own are not good. And even if he does manage to keep Mary safe, what about finding his family? Review:I feel neither here nor there about After the Snow. From literary standpoint, the novel is written skillfully. The book's narrator, 15-year old Willo, a half-wild boy raised to be able to care for himself in a world of almost endless winter (Earth appears to be back to the Ice Age in After the Snow), is not of overly educated stock. He can barely read, he speaks in a dialect (akin to Saba's in Blood Red Road or Todd's in The Knife of Never Letting Go) which is sure to put off many readers, if I am to judge by the early reviews of the book. Not me though. Language and the narrative style are the best part of the novel, in my opinion. They fit the desolate, possibly post-apocalyptic landscape and Willo's nature boy persona very well. The beginning of the novel is particularly enthralling. After coming back from hunting, Willo finds his mountain home empty and his family gone. He suspects that their neighbor, who first impregnated and then married Willo's 14-year old sister, has something to do with the disappearance. So Willo embarks on a freezing cold journey to visit this neighbor and to figure out what happened to his family. He has only his sled with a few necessary for survival items, his knowledge of living in rough conditions and his memories with him. Some of those memories are pure gold: Magda got her books in that cupboard. Some of them are proper interesting - like the one about every kind of decease a sheep gonna get if you just let it alone and don't go checking under its tail for maggots and under its wool for maggots and behind its ears for maggots. I tell you, sheep must be like a big pile of shit to flies, cos they sure gonna get a maggoty disease just by standing still. Or be falling off a cliff or giving birth in a snowy ditch or some other trouble if you're gonna believe what that book tell you. (I don't know what it says about me, but I read books for voices like this and and for bits of information like this.) Things get even more exciting when Willo meets a dying of cold and hunger girl and her little brother in an isolated shack. At that point I was very much looking forward to a survival- in-a-snow sort of story. To my regret, my expectations never materialized. A series of unfortunate events (involving wild dogs and cannibals!) brings Willo to a government-controlled and guarded city, and here After the Snow transforms from a post-apocalyptic survival story into a dystopia. The settlements appears to be of a totalitarian, oppressive kind, with a very tight security from outsiders and a necessity for everyone to have "papers." But it all made no sense to me. With a lot of military guarding this place, there is very little order inside. And whoever in this regime suggested living in tents (!) in this climate definitely lacked basic common sense. Overall, the main conflict of the story - which is, apparently, a tension between people who live in the "official" settlement and those, who like Willo's parents, decided to live separately and fend for themselves in the mountains - made very little sense to me. The novel lost me then.
| | | I wish I could be more positive about After the Snow and recommend it for more than just the writing style, but I am more inclined to suggest a couple of other wintery reads for those who want something of the kind, but better plotted - Marcus Sedgwick's Revolver and Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness. |
3/5 stars
 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Author: Jesse Andrews
Publication Date: 3/1/12
Publisher: Amulet Books
Blurb (GR): Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia. Review: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was my second "cancer book" in as many months. Although both Jesse Andrews and John Green had the same intention - to write a story about cancer that was different from those other tearjerky novels, in my eyes, Andrews was much more successful at stepping away from melodrama and cliches of the genre than Green. Of course, Andrews does not (yet) have a publicity platform of Green's magnitude to promote his novel, so I am glad to be able to help him out a little, because, from my perspective, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a better, more honest, more real book than The Fault in Our Stars. It is better mainly because it does not try to force you into feeling all the obvious things we are expected to feel reading stories about young, terminally ill characters. There is a certain compulsion to idealize cancer kids, lives ending so tragically early and all that. It is also pretty common to practically guilt you into feeling sorry for their specific predicament. But I like that Andrews allows his characters, even his hero, to be resentful and maybe indifferent towards or burdened by the illness, that his cancer-stricken patient is not an ever-so-wise, heroic saint, that there are maybe no life lessons to learn from such personal tragedies. Maybe having a dying girl in your life is just an event that will affect you in a major way, or maybe it will not and that would be okay, too. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is not all about cancer though, in fact, the dying girl subplot plays only a relatively small part in Greg's story. It is more about Greg defining himself, stopping to play so safe, about bringing a little more focus onto his future and about understanding of who he is. The author might be a little coy repeating again and again in his narrative that there is no point to this novel, but there is one. Another good thing about Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is that it is very funny. The success of the book with a reader will depend a lot on what he/she finds funny though, because, admittedly, the novel is filled with jokes of the bathroom variety, you know, boogers, boobs and boners. But it was funny to me nevertheless. Great dialogue, self-deprecating humor (albeit occasionally too self-deprecating to be not annoying), vulgarity, wacky secondary characters, fresh (to me) approach to portraying cancer - I enjoyed it all and I hope you will too. 4/5 stars
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