Anya's Ghost
Author: Vera Brosgol
Publication Date: 6/7/11
Publisher: First Second

Blurb(GR): Anya could really use a friend. But her new BFF isn't kidding about the "Forever" part . . . Of all the things Anya expected to find atthe bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them. Especially not a new friend who's been dead for a century. Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya's normal life might actually be worse. She's embarrassed by her family, self-conscious about her body, and she's pretty much given up on fitting in at school. A new friend--even a ghost--is just what she needs. Or so she thinks. Spooky, sardonic, and secretly sincere, "Anya's Ghost "is a wonderfully entertaining debut from author/artist Vera Brosgol. "Anya's Ghost" is a 2011 "Kirkus" Best Teen Books of the Year title. One of "School Library Journal"'s Best Fiction Books of 2011.  One of "Horn Book"'s Best Fiction Books of 2011.

Review:

It’s been a while since I’ve read a real graphic novel that’s not just text with illustrations.  So it may be partly because I’ve been missing the format, but I was completely blown away by this book.  It made me remember everything that’s possible in a graphic novel, but impossible when the story is confined to mere words.  Beyond that, I think that it takes an incredible amount of talent to convey so efficiently and precisely the story, characters, emotions, and just everything in the space of a drawing.  Vera Brosgol infuses every cell with so much meaning and emotion.

I think that I fell in love with Anya on about page two.  She is a curvy, sarcastic, insecure, unmotivated, smart, snarky, dark, sweet Russian girl who wishes to be everything that she’s not.  All of this comes across within the span of a few pages.  There are very few words to this book, but any more would be simply unnecessary.  The story is rich and detailed and complex as it is.

Anya has a hopeless crush on the school basketball captain, and an envious sort of hatred for his girlfriend, the perfect blonde Elizabeth. When she falls into a well one afternoon, she discovers that she’s not alone. The ghost of a young girl lingers there, her body left to desiccate for ninety years. Anya is scared at first, but soon she discovers just how useful a ghost can be.

There is a lovely message within these pages too.  Anya feels so much like an outsider, and the bullying that she suffers as a child after immigrating to the U.S. encourages her to turn away from her identity and heritage.  This is a
common feeling for young people who must start over in a new place, but it is also a feeling universally shared by teenagers.  I think that a lot of young people have that insecurity, that feeling of ill-fitting discomfort, like your entire person just doesn’t quite belong anywhere.  There can be a tremendous amount of pressure to change and mold and adapt yourself to assimilate.  Anya rejects everything curvy and smart and Russian.  But Anya finds out that not all that seems perfect actually is, and that it’s a good thing to be different.

This theme is nothing revolutionary, but the humor, the dash of the paranormal, and the fantastic artwork all contribute to the extraordinariness of this book.  I highly recommend this for everyone.

Perfect Musical Pairing

Regina Spektor – Raindrops

Regina seems like an obvious choice for this book, and this song is very fragile and sweet, like I imagine Anya is on the inside.  This is a song about looking for connection and hoping to meet that special person that’s still unrevealed.

4.5/5 Stars

How to Save a Life
Author: Sara Zarr
Publication Date: 10/18/11
Publisher: Little Brown

Blurb (GR): Jill MacSweeny just wishes everything could go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she's been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends--everyone who wants to support her. And when her mom decides to adopt a baby, it feels like she's somehow trying to replace a lost family member with a new one.

Mandy Kalinowski understands what it's like to grow up unwanted--to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, one thing she's sure of is that she wants a better life for her baby. It's harder to be sure of herself. Will she ever find someone to care for her, too?

As their worlds change around them, Jill and Mandy must learn to both let go and hold on, and that nothing is as easy--or as difficult--as it seems.

Critically acclaimed author and National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr delivers a heart-wrenching story, told from dual perspectives, about the many roads that can lead us home.

Review:

Reading Sara Zarr reminds me of that old Hemingway quote, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Boy does she know how to do that.  Only, she translates every emotion with such stark, raw purity that it feels like I am the one bleeding.  Maybe not everyone has been a pregnant teenager with a dreadful home life or a hostile, sarcastic girl who’s just lost her closest support, but I think that it would be hard for anyone not to find something to relate to in these girls.

Mandy and Jill are two girls who want more.  Mandy is eight months pregnant and takes a desperate chance on Robin, a middle aged widow who agrees to adopt her child with no contracts, lawyers, or social workers.  Jill is Robin’s daughter, still reeling from the loss of her father only a year ago, and highly suspicious of Mandy and her motivations.  These girls couldn’t possibly have less in common, but they are thrown together, and they may end up
impacting each other’s lives in unexpected ways.

Each Sara Zarr novel that I have read features a young woman dealing with conflict in her life and learning to cope, and yet none of these girls feel at all like the same person.  Each novel feels original.  And that’s true here as well:  Mandy and Jill have very distinct personalities and voices.  I could relate to Mandy’s insecurity as a potential mother, to her confusion about who she is, to her firm conviction about who she’s not.  I could also relate to Jill; to her desperate fear of love and intimacy, after experiencing real loss for the first time.

I like the love interests, but I love that they don’t play a major role in this story.  This is a story about Mandy and Jill finding peace and certainty within themselves, and learning to trust.  The only part of this story that doesn’t feel quite real to me is the end.  But, I think that most of you know by now that I have a hard time with happy endings.  What seems incongruous to me, will probably only increase the popularity of this book.  Who doesn’t love a happy 
ending?

SPOILERS AHEAD
Me. 

Maybe it’s because I could relate so much to Mandy’s doubts that she would be a good mother.  That’s not something that goes away as soon as your baby is born and placed into your arms.  There’s no magical balm for that.  I have had to earn what little confidence I have piece by piece, one bedtime, one meal, one scraped knee at a time.  I guess I wanted to see some of that in Mandy – that everything wasn’t magically fixed.  And I know that Christopher should be told about the baby, but it felt too much like Mandy seeking for some kind of outside completion, outside validation.  She doesn’t need that. 

END SPOILERS

Perfect Musical Pairing

Mumford & Sons – Timshel

I love this album for these books.  This song is such a healing balm, which is something that I think both Mandy and Jill need.  It has two distinct phrases, which remind me so much of Mandy and Jill.

Jill:
"Cold is the water
It freezes your already cold mind
Already cold, cold mind
And death is at your doorstep
And it will steal your innocence
But it will not steal your substance"

and Mandy:
"And you are the mother
The mother of your baby child
The one to whom you gave life
 And you have your choices
And these are what make man great
His ladder to the stars"

4.5/5 Stars

Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Publication Date: 9/27/11
Publisher: Little Brown

Blurb(GR): Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low. And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Review:
Not just five stars…one million stars, two sister moons, and two pairs of wings in flight.  That’s how beautiful this book is.  I hope this is a huge hit, and all the kids read it.  Listen up kids, this book has everything that you’re looking for:  secrets, paranormal creatures, hot guys, best friends; passionate, enduring, forbidden, love…and angst!  But unlike all the rest, this one is the real thing.

It’s times like these that I wish I was a real, honest to goodness book fairy, with little wings, a wand, a tutu, and magical powers of course.  Kids can simply place whichever one of the mountains of published young adult paranormal romance novels that they’ve purchased in the past few years under their pillows, and I’ll replace them all with this book.  Sort of like the tooth fairy.  (And after reading this book, the question really begs to be asked:  what are you doing with all of those teeth, tooth fairy?  WHAT ARE THE TEETH FOR?!)

The beginning of this book is almost lulling in its routine and normalcy.  Karou is a young art student in Prague, attending classes, dealing with her obnoxious ex-boyfriend, and going out with her petite best friend Zuzana.  She’s a little eccentric, a little odd, but her classmates don’t ask too many questions, and Karou has perfected the art of the non-answer.  Her popular journals contain vivid drawings of another world, populated by mythical creatures: part human, part animal, each with detailed traits and peculiarities.  “Where do you get your ideas?” her classmates ask, and Karou responds with a trademark little smile and assures them that it’s not made up; it’s all true. 

Disquieting little details about Karou’s life are revealed almost casually, and the apprehension grows.  Soon the curiosity and apprehension build to outright anxiety and you just have to know.  But you don’t want to know.  Maybe you think that you’ve already figured out a few things, but "you can’t know until you know.”

Karou’s feelings: her indignation, her terrible curiosity, and her aching loneliness all come across so powerfully and vividly.  I think that I felt every single thing that she feels through these pages.  I felt immersed in Karou.   And just like Karou, so many details and hints became devastatingly clear to me only after it was too late. 

The world that Laini Taylor creates is intricate, bright, original, and it will stretch your imagination.  The characters are layered with concealed motivations, and they’re heartbreaking and real.  The love story is tragic and intense (and takes advantage of perhaps the only justifiable excuse for instalove).  And the writing!  Beautiful, emotional, lyrical, shattering…all those words don’t even begin to describe it.  This woman can write. 

But perhaps the most astonishing thing to me is this book’s complete dearth of cynicism.  This book is all about love, peace, and the magic of hope.  

”Hope can be a powerful force.  Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”

I can’t believe that it got through to me so much, but it really did.  I think that it will be difficult for even the most committed of cynics not to be affected by this book.

Perfect Musical Pairing
The Smashing Pumpkins – Muzzle

Okay, so I really like it when I can pair up a writer with a specific group.  It gives me a nice little feeling of symmetry.  The lyrics of this song apply so perfectly to this story, and when I listened to it I even got a bit emotional about the book so that’s always a good sign.

“All things will surely have to end,
and great loves will one day have to part.”

I think that this song is about a lost love, but when I was reading through the lyrics (in English…because I’m an ignorant American I only speak one language), I was so struck with all the feelings of loss that Guadalupe Garcia McCall so perfectly describes in this book.

While I'm sleeping
I feel that we walk
The two of us, 
very close to each other,
Towards a blue sky
But when I wake up - the red sky
You are missing.

4/5 Stars 

Babe in Boyland
Author: Jody Gehrman
Publication Date: 2/17/11
Publisher: Dial

Blurb (GR): When high school junior Natalie - or Dr.
Aphrodite, as she calls herself when writing the relationship column for her school paper - is accused of knowing nothing about guys and giving girls bad relationship advice, she decides to investigate what guys really think and want. But the guys in her class won't give her straight or serious answers. The only
solution? Disguising herself as a guy and spending a week at Underwood Academy, the private all-boy boarding school in town. There she learns a lot about guys and girls in ways she never expected - especially when she falls for her dreamy roommate, Emilio. How can she show him she likes him without blowing her cover?

Review:
For those of you who read my reviews, this one might feel like a bit of déjà vu.

Which is exactly how this book feels to me.  Granted, sometimes this premise is done well.  But mostly, it’s not.

I actually think that this theme could use a reboot, especially in this day and age, with gender roles becoming more and more fluid and undefined.  I would love to see one of these characters discover that the old, “Men are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” paradigm is a load of crap and that we’re all actually just human beings, more similar than we are different.  Why do boys say they’ll call but then don’t?  Perhaps because they’re playing into age old stereotypes about how they’re supposed to act, or perhaps they’re just nervous about failing miserably, like we all are.  Is it true that boys think about sex every eight seconds?  No, that’s not true.  They actually think about it every five seconds, just like we all do.

So yes, this book does not exactly bring anything new to the table.  In fact, while I was reading it I was so strongly reminded of that 1980’s film, “Just One of the Guys” that I made my entire family re-watch it with me in the name of research.  On Christmas.  It’s a good thing that they love me.

It turns out that there really are quite a few similarities.  Both main characters are high school journalism students, who cross dress in the name of research and are hoping to win a prize.  Both characters infiltrate a new school.  Both are popular as girls, but then become losers as boys.  Both characters are bullied by the popular guy.  Both can’t seem to get their boy persona quite right, until they give in and stuff a sock down their pants.  Both have that scene where they run to a boys’ urinal, only to stare at it in dismay.  Both must fend off unwanted advances from a girl.  Both end up falling for a boy who’s a loser-fringe type guy but also has a perfect physique and a winning personality (because you know, that happens).

But I guess that I could have just described many of the large number of movies, television shows, and books that have all capitalized on this idea.

I did enjoy Natalie learning to appreciate the “underdogs hiding in plain sight” around her, and her growing respect for the non-superficial characteristics.  But then most of that seems nullified when she falls for Emilio, a character who has very little substance at all, and seems mostly defined by his stellar abs and caramel skin.

And if anything, Natalie emerges from her little experiment with gender roles even more solidly defined.  ”There is a divide, though, between male and female worlds, and those worlds have different rules, different customs, different cultures.”She exults in her freedom from “boyhood”, becoming even “girlier” by wearing pink and glitter and indulging in exaggerated emotional responses.  

This is a fun, fluffy, cute read but it’s been done before.  Many times.  If you’re looking for something novel or revolutionary, I would give this one a pass.

Perfect Musical Pairing

Midnight Star – Girl’s Got Something Boys Ain’t Got

If you’re going to flash back to the eighties anyway, might as well just go there!  For journalism antics,
cross-dressing, and traditional gender roles only slightly challenged, I would actually suggest watching this movie!  It has a zany brother!  And thirty year olds playing high schoolers!  And boobs!

2/5 Stars 

Red Glove (Curse Workers, #2)
Author: Holly Black
Publication Date: 4/5/11
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Book

Blurb (GR): Curses and cons. Magic and the mob. In Cassel Sharpe's world, they go together. Cassel always thought he was an ordinary guy, until he realized his memories were being manipulated by his brothers. Now he knows the truth—he’s the most powerful curse worker around. A touch of his hand can transform anything—or anyone—into something else.

That was how Lila, the girl he loved, became a white cat. Cassel was tricked into thinking he killed her, when actually he tried to save her. Now that she's human again, he should be overjoyed. Trouble is, Lila's been cursed to love him, a little gift from his emotion worker mom. And if Lila's love is as phony as Cassel's made-up memories, then he can't believe anything she says or does.

When Cassel's oldest brother is murdered, the Feds recruit Cassel to help make sense of the only clue—crime-scene images of a woman in red gloves. But the mob is after Cassel too—they know how valuable he could be to them. Cassel is going to have to stay one step ahead of both sides just to survive. But where can he turn when he can't trust anyone—least of all, himself?

Love is a curse and the con is the only answer in a game too dangerous to lose.

Review:
Glad to report that my my new, unexpected and surprising love affair with Holly Black continues. YES!

I approached Red Glove with trepidation, because a few of my book soulmate type friends, whose opinions I rely on, were not very positive about this sequel. But I, thankfully, saw nothing wrong with it. Red Glove is completely on par with its predecessor.

So, Cassel is back in school after spending a few months with his conartist mom who curses and charms every rich and powerful man in the vicinity. But getting rid of her for a time doesn't change the fact that he has plenty more troubles on his mind - he has to face the burden of knowledge of his assassin past and he is forced to confront Lila who was worked into blindly loving him by his mother. To add to all that, Cassel has feds on his tail who blackmail him into helping them out to solve a murder involving a woman in red gloves.

I enjoyed pretty much everything about Red Glove and most likely I will repeat all the complements I already gave White Cat. Conartistry, mafia and activism in defense of curse workers are just great. The dynamic between Cassel and Lila are even better. Mysteries in YA rarely mystify me, but this one surprised me again and again.

4/5 stars

Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Publication Date: 9/27/11
Publisher: Little Brown 

Blurb (GR): Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Review:
When I first heard the details of the premise of Laini Taylor's new book, for a moment I thought Laini must have read my review of Personal Demons. In that review I rant about how great story ideas are squandered away. You see, Personal Demons had a very interesting concept - a demon and an angel battling for the soul of a human girl. There are so many creative opportunities in the angel/demon lore, I thought surely the author would make something good out of it. I was wrong then - the story turned out to be nothing more than a cliche angsty love triangle extravaganza. But I am right now. Laini Taylor took a similar angel/demon idea and transformed it into pure magic.

Karou is a 17-year old art student. She lives in Prague, paints and goes to school. She is trying to get over her good-for-nothing ex-boyfriend. But there is an air of mystery about Karou. She knows magic. She has a secret life. Karou is an orphan who was raised lovingly by a foursome of demonic creatures. She occasionally runs strange errands for them; and on one of the trips she is confronted by an angelic-looking Akiva who attempts to kill her.

What happens next is best described by the book's own first lines:

Once upon a time,
an angel and a devil fell in love.

It did not end well.

There is nothing cliche about this story, trust me. Laini Taylor is a writer with talent and extraordinary imagination. What I loved the most about Daughter of Smoke and Bone was the world behind it. We all have read our measure of angel books and you will probably agree with me that the portrayal of angels in them rarely goes beyond wings, sexiness and some dark secret behind the "fall." But what if angels and demons are not what is traditionally/biblically accepted? What if you could get into the midst of their world, learn about their cultures, gain knowledge about their centuries-long war? What if the love between an angel and demon is forbidden and a taboo (maybe even by human standards)? Would you like to read about that? I bet you would.

Lips Touch: Three Times is one of my most favorite books ever. If you liked those stories, I doubt Daughter of Smoke and Bone will disappoint you. This novel is equally dark, sensual, unsettling and a little twisted. The imagery is stunning. The language is beautiful, every word matters (there were a couple of slips into overwritten, I must say, but only a couple). And the love... well, it pushes boundaries, it transcends time and space.

5/5 stars

Angelfall
Author: Susan Ee
Publication Date: 5/21/11
Publisher: Feral Dream

Blurb (GR): It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Review:
Well, I guess I got schooled again. Clearly I can't hold on to this particular reading prejudice against self-published books any more, because here it is, a self-pub that is not equal in quality to similar books released by major publishers, but, in fact, better than probably 75% of those books. Angelfall is a competently-written and competently-edited novel.

If you are a fan of UF and post-apocalyptic adventure stories like Blood Red Road and Under the Never Sky, there is hardly any doubt you will enjoy Angelfall. It is a dynamic, practically unputdownable, even though very familiar, story. A pair of beings - a human girl and a wingless angel in this case - ally to achieve their separate goals. They are reluctant and unnatural partners in Angelfall's world almost completely destroyed by angels. But, of course, they learn to respect and trust each other. I am not going to elaborate any further. You get the idea, I am sure.

Everything I am fond of in novels of this sort is there: self-reliant, courageous heroine who loves her family and is ready to sacrifice everything for them - check; romance secondary to survival - check; action, gore and moderate violence - check; a unique, fresh and twisty mythology (Ee does something rather interesting with the angel lore here) - check. Some compare Angelfall to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but I personally wouldn't go that far. These two books are completely different beasts that only have a word "angel" connecting them. Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a more literary, more complex and better written work, whereas Angelfall is a more commercial, easier to digest story, and I see nothing wrong with that. Give me more good genre fiction!

There is only a couple of things that bothered me in this novel. First, I feel there had to be a tad more information about the angel-orchestrated apocalypse. You see, the attack happened about 2 months prior to the book's beginning, but the description of it is very murky, as if it happened centuries, not weeks before and nobody remembers the details anymore. I have only the vaguest idea of what exactly happened and how it unfolded. I wish this was addressed better in the novel. Actually, some info-dumping about the apocalypse in the beginning of the book, in the barest and slowest part of it, would have been quite appropriate.

And again, connected to the same 2-months post-apocalypse timeline, the human civilization seems to have digressed too severely over this rather short time. Surely, considering that a huge percentage of human population has been wiped out, there is still enough canned food in ruined Wal-Marts to prevent people from doing some very atrocious things they do in this story for food. Plus, the main character's survival skills appear to have developed too quickly as well.

Other than that, there is nothing to complain about, really. Angelfall is certainly a page-turner and it gets better and better as the story progresses. I am not surprised everyone who's read this novel is so excited about it and its sequel. Angelfall is a stellar entertainment. Now I only wish I had an opportunity to hold a hardcover of it in my hands. How and why this book was never published the traditional way is a mystery to me.

4/5 stars