Skandal by Lindsay Smith Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“My past cannot hurt me now. My future cannot stop me now. All I have is now.”- Skandal, Lindsay Smith

My mind is mine alone.

Life in Washington, D.C., is not the safe haven Yulia hoped for when she risked everything to flee communist Russia. Her father is reckless and aloof, and Valentin is distant and haunted by his past. Her mother is being targeted by the CIA and the US government is suspicious of Yulia's allegiance. And when super-psychics start turning up in the US capitol, it seems that even Rostov is still a threat. Ultimately, Yulia must keep control of her own mind to save the people she loves and avoid an international Skandal.

If you'll recall, I quite liked Sekret. It was fun and action packed and helped me with my minor reading slump. I confess, though, I knew I wouldn't like this book as much as I liked the first. I wasn't looking forward to picking it up, but I decided to anyway because I didn't know what else to read and I figured this would be fun and action packed enough. 

This month I've been trying to read fun things to make up for last month. I've also been super busy, so don't expect much from me. 

However, Skandal didn't grab me the same way Sekret did. Maybe it's because I thought (and honestly still think) that Sekret didn't really need a second book. It was just fine on its own. It was just kind of the first book but taking place in America instead of the Soviet Union.

I did, however, enjoy the writing. I particularly liked Smith's descriptions, they were pretty and set the scene up nicely. Sure, the way the characters spoke seemed like it was right out of a 60s noir movie, but I managed to let myself enjoy it, even if it was a bit painful. 

Yulia was still the same okay main character. I still cared little for her and Valentin. The other characters didn't really interest me much and didn't do anything surprising to me. I just excused this as being a fun book and not one that was meant to be a literary masterpiece.

I do think that Smith went with the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to historical fiction that I talked about in my A Death-Struck Year review. She threw in basically everything that people think of when they think of the 60s, and even a few of the 50s. Greasers, beatniks, Vietnam, Kennedy's assassination, the Cold War, mod clothing, the Beatles, the Civil Rights Movement, the Cuban Missile Crisis- whether it actually fit or not it was going in. Frankly, she should just have focused on the Cold War or maybe Vietnam or Cuba, to make for a more centered story. While I did like that scene in the jazz club, it felt a bit forced and not natural with the storyline.

The jazz club thing also fit into my other (nitpicky) complaint, which was what the hell where beatniks doing in 64? I know the Beat Generation was technically until the mid 60s, but by then it wasn't really relevant anymore, and the mod and Warhol's factory movements kind of took over the headlines. The true Beat Generation was in the 50s. Not to mention that beatniks and greasers didn't really party together. I was also a bit confused by how mod clothing was treated as this alien thing, when it was embraced by the youth in both America, Europe, and, yes, the Soviet Union in the 60s. Mod clothing wasn't some strange new thing. 

I also didn't like how Yulia's accent was mentioned every five lines. Yes, we get it, you're Russian, move on.

Overall I preferred the first book. I'm happy Smith didn't feel the need to drag it out any longer than two books, though, and I still want to read her other serial, but this book unfortunately kind of brought down the whole duology for me. I don't know if I'll write a series thoughts for this, but if I do, it will be up tomorrow. Hopefully. If I don't get distracted by Twin Peaks.

6.5 out of 10

Violet Grenade by Victoria Scott Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“But this place is not the dream I created. It's just a dusty house where girls trade their virtue for bronze coins they'll never touch.”- Violet Grenade, Victoria Scott

Domino: A runaway with blood on her hands.

Cain: A silent boy about to explode.

Madam Karina: A woman who demands obedience.

Wilson: The one who will destroy them all.

Her name is Domino Ray.

But the voice inside her head has a different name.

When Madam Karina discovers Domino in an alleyway, she offers her a position at her girls’ home in secluded West Texas. With no alternatives and an agenda of her own, Domino accepts. It isn’t long before she is fighting her way up the ranks to gain the madam’s approval…and falling for Cain, the mysterious boy living in the basement.

But the madam has horrible secrets. So do the girls in the house. So does Cain.

Escaping is harder than Domino expects, though, because the madam doesn’t like to lose inventory. But then, Madam Karina doesn’t know about the danger living inside Domino’s mind.

Madam Karina doesn’t know about Wilson.

In a world of darkness, there was a poor thief by the name of Domino whose beauty and intelligence was only surpassed by her dark and twisted past. When the Queen of Flowers, Karina, discovers her and offers to take her in, Domino is delighted, and falls into the Queen's world, battling bosses in order to make it to the next level. But soon, and with the help of a handsome and tortured guard, Cain, she wakes up from the evil spell Queen Karina has put on her. Now, she must defeat the Queen before any other girls fall under her dark spell in the mythical land of... West Texas?

Wait, you mean this isn't a fantasy novel? It's a contemporary thriller? Huh. 

I think this is honestly the most fun I ever had reading a book this year. I mean, is this a good book? No. Is this a bad book? By my standards, yes. It certainly isn't what I would consider to be well-written. I admit, if this was a fantasy, I probably would have given this a much higher rating than it actually got, and would have really enjoyed it and given it a great review, but alas, my thriller standards are much higher than my fantasy standards, likely due to me reading and enjoying more thrillers than I do fantasy. 

As far as ideas go, Ms Scott gets an A+. Extremely implausible, but hey, so was The Butterfly Garden and I loved every second of that book. But I don't give idea points. Okay, yes, I gave Sekret idea points, but that's because the execution of that book was better than this one. Where am I going with this? Right, the idea behind the story. It's honestly really cool, the whole flower motif and the dark and edgy parts and the home itself, but something about the whole thing just felt so over the top to the point where it was impossible to take seriously. In that respect it was a lot like The Cellar, great idea, authors just don't know how to write thrillers in a way that makes them not over the top theatrical. Hell, they even have the same flower thing going on! Domino even has basically the same backstory (though with a few modifications) as Clover.

Both also have the same overly intense dialogue. For instance, at one point Domino actually says "Give me your crown? Let it fall from evil and sit on the head of righteousness!" Seriously. I had to read that line twice. Domino, dear, I think you have a bit of a flair for the dramatic. Everyone also spoke like they were given a list of cliches and they had to say as many of them whenever they spoke. Like a soap opera basically. But I think the reason why this amused rather than grated on me today is because I watched five episodes of Twin Peaks (including an (un)healthy dose of the James-Evelyn storyline) this morning, and if you're a Twin Peaks fan you know what I'm talking about. Of course, the reason for that dialogue in Twin Peaks is because the show is (among other things) a parody of a soap opera, whereas in this book it's a leetle less excusable because Scott clearly intended on this book being a serious dark thriller, but hey, by the time I picked this book up my threshold for ridiculousness was already extremely high. 

Can we take a minute to talk about the names? Like Poppet? And Domino? Those are fine names for a fantasy novel, but a contemporary? Give me a break. I think at one point Madam Karina goes on about how Domino's a real name because it makes her think of gambling and whatever, and I was like "all I think of when I hear Domino is shitty chain pizza". I mean, I don't hate the name Domino, but I would give my dog that name, not my daughter. Also, Love Interest's name is Cain. Hope you paid attention in Sunday School, because that allusion's gonna come back in the most obvious of ways. 

As a whole, too, the characterization is just bad. No one has any real depth, and everyone just kind of acted like over dramatic idiots. There are no subtle nuances to any of the characters. The most interesting one is probably Madam Karina, but at the same time I think I've seen her before. It was the same with Domino, I've seen her before. I mean, I love the short, blond, and blue eyed heroine, but she came across to me as every other YA female MC. She especially reminded me of Tina in the quickly abandoned City of Saints and Thieves and also most other fantasy protags. And the same with Cain (how many times have we seen the dark and broody love interest?) and Poppet (cute, perky, innocent best friend). Also, if I ever have to read a storyline in which the obvious love interest and the main character hate each other, and then seemingly out of nowhere fall in love, I'm throwing the book across the room. Again, high ridiculousness threshold today, so I didn't shatter the screen of my iPad.

The plot was fairly insane as well, and I found myself at several times reminding myself not to question the insanity of it and let myself enjoy the story. Because, again, the idea was awesome, but at times it felt rushed and like Scott bit off more than she could chew. One of the few things that I genuinely disliked about it was that it dragged at times and felt too rushed at others. I don't care about Cain and Domino, I'd rather read about her experiences in the house. Also, her moving up in the levels kind of reminded me of Pokemon or some JRPG that I never actually played because I don't play JRPGs in that you have to defeat the "boss" (Point Girl) in order to advance to the next level. Kind of like that kara-teh episode of Spongebob, now that I think about it (may be showing my age there). 

I will say this, though, I did think the lack of swearing was refreshing. I'd rather have a book with few swear words than one that dropped f-bombs every other sentence. 

As a whole, this book is damn fine entertainment. Definitely rereading. It was that elusive, The Cellar bad (though a bit better than The Cellar, admittedly). I mean, it didn't incite any anger in me at all. For that, in Goodreads ratings it's a solid two star book. Because I'm feeling nice today, it's a 4-4.5 book. Nice refresher for after Brideshead Revisited, and I think I definitely read it at the right time. Seriously though, if you're going to pick this book up watch the second half of Season Two of Twin Peaks right before doing it and you'll be in the right state of mind to handle Violet Grenade.

4-4.5 out of 10

The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“How do you ever hold on to anybody?”- The Pearl Thief, Elizabeth Wein

Before Verity…there was Julie.

When fifteen-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart wakes up in the hospital, she knows the lazy summer break she’d imagined won’t be exactly like she anticipated. And once she returns to her grandfather’s estate, a bit banged up but alive, she begins to realize that her injury might not have been an accident. One of her family’s employees is missing, and he disappeared on the very same day she landed in the hospital.

Desperate to figure out what happened, she befriends Euan McEwen, the Scottish Traveller boy who found her when she was injured, and his standoffish sister, Ellen. As Julie grows closer to this family, she experiences some of the prejudices they’ve grown used to firsthand, a stark contrast to her own upbringing, and finds herself exploring thrilling new experiences that have nothing to do with a missing-person investigation.

Her memory of that day returns to her in pieces, and when a body is discovered, her new friends are caught in the crosshairs of long-held biases about Travellers. Julie must get to the bottom of the mystery in order to keep them from being framed for the crime.

       I remember 

Those are pearls that were his eyes.

Starting off today with a TS Eliot quote, though the bottom part is Shakespeare (The Tempest, to be exact). It's from The Waste Land, and I think it fits with the whole memory thing and pearls and all that.

I've written before that I like Elizabeth Wein. She's a good beginning historical fiction writer- her historical mysteries are easy to digest and factually accurate. So when I found out that she had a new book coming out, and that said new book would be a prequel to Code Name Verity starring my favorite character from that book Queenie, I was excited. However, The Pearl Thief managed to fall under my (not even that lofty) expectations.

This book reminded me that, while I do like and recommend Wein's books, her writing has always been the reason why the highest I've ever rated one of her books is a 7.5-8. It's very lower level YA/middle grade. I would have no problem giving her books to someone from the ages of 12-15, but for me it just feels too young. This is a matter of taste, of course, and what doesn't work for me may work really well for someone else, but this is my opinion. 

Another thing that didn't really work for me in this particular book is Julie's voice. What I found so charming in Code Name Verity now felt strained and annoying. The all caps and the goddamn italics (Night Film has ruined those for me forever) grated on me. I think maybe I was able to excuse the use of both those in Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire because in those books the main character is writing the story in a journal format. This book, however, is written in a typical narrative style which makes it not as successful. 

I also disliked Wein's sledgehammer approach to showing prejudice against the Scottish Travellers. Maybe it's just me, but I really hate it when morals are forced down my throat in books. Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. There were also a lot of things that just didn't add up to me, like how did Julie's mother and Euan and Ellen's mother play together as children when Julie's mother would have grown up in the Victorian times, a time of stringent class divisions? Hell, even the character of her granddad felt too good to be true. The only time the issue of prejudice was done well was with Mary and her attitude towards the Travellers, but even then that was cleared up way too quickly. 

The characterization was weak in a lot of respects- I felt no real friendship chemistry between any of the characters, but especially between Julie and Ellen. They literally became best friends in, what, half a paragraph? I get that Wein's thing is writing about female friendships, but at this point I think she's exhausted the subject. Maybe I'm in the minority here, likely because I rarely had a best friend as a child, but I find books about friendship boring. Give me a love story over a friendship story any day. Though, I confess, I do like male-female friendships and groups of friends more than female-female friendships. Or hell, I'd even take male-male friendships, because they usually have a better dynamic. Female-female friendships in YA lit often feel oddly pointed, like the author made them friends because of feminism and not because of actual chemistry between the characters. 

I wonder if this book would have been more successful if she used a different main character. Because, frankly, this book adds nothing to the character of Queenie as we knew her in Code Name Verity. In fact, I think I prefer Queenie to Julie, she was tough and smart but she broke down too, and was more tolerable as a whole than this Julie. I mean, sure, their narrative voices are the same, but honestly if you give me a snippet of Rose Under Fire or Maddie's portion of Code Name Verity and ask me to guess who was speaking, I wouldn't be able to tell you. All of her heroines are kind of alike. What I would have liked was if she had created a new main character, maybe one with a similar background who- and here's a thought- maybe when to school with Julie? I know, I know, then Wein can't sell it under the title of Code Name Verity prequel. 

I mean, I thought the idea for the story was interesting, and I did like the peek into both Scotland and the lives of the Travellers, but often I wondered why this book even needed to exist, or exist in the same universe as Code Name Verity. I mean, I'm not saying it's a money grab, because the plot is too fleshed out for it, but I think maybe she pitched it as a standalone and the Powers That Be were like, hey, we could sell this as a Code Name Verity spinoff and sell a lot more books because of it and Wein said yes and decided to insert Julie and her brothers into the roles she had filled prior with different characters.

So do I recommend it? Eh. Maybe. I'd pick up Code Name Verity over this, or especially Rose Under Fire, which is my favorite work of hers to date, but some aspects are quite nice, like the bits about Traveller culture. I'd read this book as a standalone of sorts, not really making any connection between The Pearl Thief and Code Name Verity. Because that is where this book fell the flattest in my eyes.

6 out of 10

Dare Me by Megan Abbott Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“That’s what people never understand: They see us hard little pretty things, brightly lacquered and sequin-studded, and they laugh, they mock, they arouse themselves. They miss everything. You see, these glitters and sparkle dusts and magicks? It’s war paint, it’s feather and claws, it’s blood sacrifice.- Dare Me, Megan Abbott

Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy's best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they're seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls -- until the young new coach arrives.

Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach's golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as "top girl" -- both with the team and with Addy herself. 

Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death -- and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain. 

The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Award-winning novelist Megan Abbott, writing with what Tom Perrotta has hailed as "total authority and an almost desperate intensity," provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl.

I don't know how I feel yet about Megan Abbott. This is the second book within a short period of time that I read by her and both weren't as great as some of the reviews I read made them seem. She has interesting story ideas and a unique writing style that should work, but there's just something about her books that I find lacking.

I mean, I was enjoying the first half of this book. The writing and the overall atmosphere really worked for me, even if I did get a little bored looking for the mystery. But I had a busy week and read the first half in small doses, stealing bits of the book whenever I had time. But when I actually sat down and finished the book, I found myself getting annoyed with the way the mystery progressed and seeing flaws in the writing (the style gets really grating after awhile, especially since it feels at times like Abbott is just saying pretty things for the sake of saying pretty things) and especially the character interaction and just characterization in general. 

There's something kind of contrived about Dare Me, and I think the works I've read of Megan Abbott in general. I don't think she understands entirely how people act, if that makes sense. Those who claim that this book is the closest they'll come again to being in the mind of a teenage girl must be a long, long way from teenagerhood. Frankly, I had a hard time seeing how any of this was plausible, and this is most glaring in Beth's actions and especially the way she spoke. I mean, she sounded like a Southern drag queen. Not only that, she sounded exactly like how Chablis spoke in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I kept expecting her to throw out a child or ooo honey. I don't think this book is supposed to take place in the South, but everyone sounded pretty Southern to my Yankee ears. I wonder if Abbott is from somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line, because both this book and You Will Know Me seemed like it took place down there, even if there were some remarks made by characters that seemed to the contrary. I also felt like half the things that come out of the mouths of these characters felt way too symbolic or heavy and laden with meaning. Unnatural. I can't think of one person who would speak the way Beth did, for instance, or Tacy, and still be taken seriously.

But I'm close enough to my teen years to say that so much in this book seemed implausible. It's like Heathers in that respect- meant to expose the dark and edgy side of the world of teenage girls but is completely unrealistic. No high school cheer coach would invite her underage girls back to her house to drink, no matter how young and hip she was. And the close relationship she forged with those girls... especially since it seems like this is a pretty small town, she would get caught and terminated immediately. And both Beth and Addy felt thin, like Abbott really tried to make them interesting, noir-ish characters, but they didn't really work for me. Well, they did at first, but by the second half I was bored of all of them. 

I can definitely tell this book and You Will Know Me were written by the same author. Both the subject matter and the way the story were set up was very evocative of each other. Both books focus on intense sports, and both are billed as thrillers, but take a long time to get to the actual mystery. And in both, the resolution was ultimately unsatisfactory. Interestingly, especially for an Edgar-awarding winning author, the mystery aspect of the plot also felt secondary, unnecessary, and thrown in, as if she felt like she had to add a mystery in somewhere. I would have been fine if this book was just about Beth trying to take down Coach, because the mystery just didn't grab me, and ended up being the weak link in the story.

I don't really have much else left to say about this story except that I think this book is best in small chunks. When you read large amounts of it at once, the flaws become annoyingly apparent. In fact, reading this book reminds me of watching Gilmore Girls. I can only take one, maybe two episodes of that show at a time, any more and the continuity errors, characters, and soap opera storylines become obvious. Overall, there's something missing in Dare Me, something that, after finishing, left me feeling lukewarm about both the book and Megan Abbott in general. I still might try one more book by her- maybe The End of Everything or The Fever- but I don't know if my opinions will change much. Hell, maybe I'll prefer her hardboiled fiction to these middlingly contemporary thrillers. Who knows?

7 out of 10

History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“History is nothing. It can be recycled or thrown away completely. It isn’t this sacred treasure chest I mistook it to be. We were something, but history isn’t enough to keep something alive forever.”- History Is All You Left Me, Adam Silvera

When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he’s been imagining for himself has gone far off course.

To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin’s downward spiral continues. He’s losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he’s been keeping are tearing him apart.

If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heartbreaking piece in the puzzle of his life.

I like Adam Silvera. He's an author whose popularity- despite only having two books out- I can understand completely. He writes short and easy to swallow contemporaries that follow gay male main characters. Because I often compartmentalize authors and books, I put him with authors like John Corey Whaley and Shaun David Hutchinson. Especially Shaun David Hutchinson, for some reason (though Hutchinson's books are far heavier reads).

And I enjoyed this book, mostly. I was surprised that, for a book with such a heavy plotline, just how much it felt like a light, summery contemporary. Hate to say it, but the word shallow comes to mind. Not shallow as in the reality TV superficial sense, but more like surface level. The emotions felt brushed upon, or not quite explored in the depth they could have been.

I also noticed that there were a lot of scenes that had a lot of potential for interesting character play- like when Griffin meets Jackson's friends the first time- but they felt rushed through. That conversation could have taken up a whole chapter and Silvera could have really expanded on the characters and given us a ton of insight into Jackson's character and also Theo when he was with Jackson, but instead we only got like two pages. It made me wonder that perhaps Silvera had a great idea in mind as to how that scene was going to play out, but once he actually sat down in front of his computer, it didn't flow as nicely as it did in his head. I've been there (of course, I'm not a published author...).

Another thing that's minor but I didn't really enjoy is that I don't know how well this book will age. Lots of mentions of nerdy things and squad and all that. I mean, not so much that I, with a middling at best grasp on current pop culture outside the literary realm, would have no idea what any of the dialogue or references mean, but still. I think about things like this.

But I did enjoy the characters, and even the plot. This is really my favorite type of LGBT book to read, when the character(s)' sexuality is a nonissue. It limits the amount of fetishization of the couples in this book because they're basically like any straight couple. Hell, even the arguments they have aren't surrounding their own sexualities, they're about things that any couple would fight about. I also liked how non stereotypical the gay characters were.

I found Griffin really endearing, as well as Jackson. The only character I think I was supposed to like but really didn't was Theo. I didn't entirely trust him at the beginning but as the book progressed I grew to not like him even more. I wouldn't say hate, because I didn't hate him, but how he treated both Griffin and Jackson annoyed the living hell out of me. They both deserved better than him (side note: God, I really hope people don't start shipping Griffin and Jackson. Can you imagine dating/fucking someone who looks just like you? Eeek.). A lot of Theo's actions that came out towards the end of the book also made me kind of uncomfortable. 

But I think the ultimate message of this book was a great one. I like the realization of Griffin that Theo wasn't this perfect being that he always thought he (Theo) was, and that despite this he still held some love for Theo was a really great conclusion, along with the message that it's okay to move on are messages that aren't often seen. In so many YA novels, once it is revealed someone isn't perfect and did (God I hate this word) problematic things, they are often knocked down to the ground and trampled on, and once the love interest dies, the protagonist might as well be killed off too because moving on is so unromantic. I'm not saying you have to move on right away, or even at all (some people don't; my grandmother never remarried after my grandfather's death and she is a lovely woman inside and out), but you shouldn't let the death of someone you love get in the way of finding happiness. I'm really tempted to make a Moonstruck reference here, but I can't figure out a good way to make it fit. 

My final thoughts on this book are that this is a short and sweet contemporary but not one that is particularly deep or impactful, at least to me. The writing could have some improvements, but overall I enjoyed it. I would still recommend More Happy Than Not before I would this novel, but I wouldn't write this one off. I'd say this would be a good middle grade novel, though it depends on your position on the prudishness scale- there is a lot of sex, none of it in depth descriptions, but still. I'd say the best age group to read it would be 9th and 10th grade (so like 14-15 year olds). 

7.5 out of 10

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“That was what gymnastics did, though. It aged girls and kept them young forever at the same time.”- You Will Know Me, Megan Abbott

Katie and Eric Knox have dedicated their lives to their fifteen-year-old daughter Devon, a gymnastics prodigy and Olympic hopeful. But when a violent death rocks their close-knit gymnastics community just weeks before an all-important competition, everything the Knoxes have worked so hard for feels suddenly at risk. As rumors swirl among the other parents, revealing hidden plots and allegiances, Katie tries frantically to hold her family together while also finding herself drawn, irresistibly, to the crime itself, and the dark corners it threatens to illuminate. From a writer with "exceptional gifts for making nerves jangle and skin crawl," (Janet Maslin) You Will Know Me is a breathless rollercoaster of a novel about the desperate limits of desire, jealousy, and ambition.

One of my biggest guilty pleasures is reality TV. More specifically, sport reality TV, more along the same lines as Dance Moms as opposed to Keeping Up With the Kardashians or Survivor or The Voice (though I do really want to watch more of RuPaul's Drag Race. Loved the .5 of an episode that I watched). I don't know, there's something about cutthroat competition and all the dynamics that come with that that fascinate me, especially the mothers that push their daughters (usually daughters) to do well in it. Cheer and dance usually get the reality treatment, with some gymnastics whenever the Olympics approaches, but I would also love to see sports like ice skating or even my beloved horse back riding (those hunter/jumper and dressage queens are crazy, let me tell you). I don't know, maybe it's because I watch or read and enjoy so much heavy stuff that sometimes I just want to get wrapped up in brain-melting trash.

Sadly, this book wasn't as much like that as I expected, and honestly I wanted more. I wish Abbott had taken the Everything I Never Told You approach and had a real tiger mom narrate. Katie just felt bland to me, not really that interesting, always doing the Right Thing To Do. For the most part, at least. There were a few moments where she really rubbed on me, like how she always acts like she's so above the other gymnastics parents yet on several occasions stoops to their level, proving that maybe she wasn't as above them as she thinks she is. I liked Gwen more than Katie, mostly because I appreciate honesty. Gwen would lie to get her way, but for the most part she was brutally honest. She would have been a fascinating character to follow, and I found the dynamics between her and her daughter infinitely more interesting than Katie's. Maybe that's just my personality, though. I didn't entirely trust Katie, she struck me as the type of person who'd smile at you to your face and hand out participation trophies, talking about how everyone's a winner, and then talk shit about you behind your back. My New England sensibilities prefer the Gwens of the world to the Katies. 

I also thought the family's dysfunction wasn't particularly done well. Half the time, her and her husband's relationship read like a cheap romance novel with the tortured, broody soul and the girl who just can't stay away from him. Not to mention, a whole big part of the book was how the son, Drew, was supposedly always ignored in favor of his sister, and it's a big moment when Katie decides to spend some time with Drew, yet she's always with him and she's always spending one on one time with him even prior to that moment. Frankly, Drew felt like a surplus character, at least in my opinion. The book would have been fine without him, maybe even a bit more centered and less heavy-handed, since his entire purpose in the plot was to be precocious and feed us heavy-handed foreshadows through his strangely prophetic dreams (I've never had a prophetic dream; most of mine involve me wandering around my house). And Devon, while an interesting character in her own right, felt poorly developed. In the end, the only character I really felt like I knew was Katie. 

Of course, perhaps my perception of dysfunction has been skewed by Everything I Never Told You. Seriously, look up dysfunction in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of the Lee family. 

I also felt like the effects of this level of competitiveness were touched upon, but in a very surface level way and not really developed much at all. It would be interesting if that was focused on more as opposed to, again, just a mentions that Katie immediately brushed to the side in favor of talking yet again about just how special her daughter is, and how everyone else's daughter sucks in comparison to Devon.

However, in this book's favor, because I really did like it even if I am bashing it a lot, I will say that Abbott has an extremely original writing style. I had a hard time matching it to any other writing style I've ever encountered. I think Abbott's very talented and enjoyed this unconventional style- it's third person, but it feels more intimate than that- like the writer is trying to tell a story to you personally. 

Also, like Everything I Never Told You, this book had an addictive quality. The chapters were long, but once I started reading I had a hard time stopping. Eventually, I would have to force myself to stop because the chapters were so long and I didn't want to pull an allnighter to try and finish this book. 

The mystery was fun, but it took a long time coming. Like halfway through the book, I started wondering if this was another book that I thought was a thriller but ended up being straight up contemporary. I mean, the thriller elements weren't perfect, and it was fairly obvious who did it, and a few of the twists felt like cop-outs, but overall, it was fun. I think I was just tired of criticizing things, so I just sat back and turned that nagging voice in my brain down low for a bit. While my gut choice was correct, there was enough of the mystery in there to keep me guessing and actually feel a bit accomplished when it turned out to be right. 

Bottom line? I liked this book. I mean, was it perfect? No. But it is addictive and fun and the world of cutthroat gymnastics was fascinating to immerse myself in, even though we could have gotten more. So I'd recommend it. Just maybe not do what I did and read it in the same few weeks as Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You. You'll appreciate this book much more if you don't do that. But I'd have no problem with picking up more of Abbott in the future.

7.5 out of 10

April 2017 Wrap-Up

I am ecstatic that April is over and done with. This was not a good month for me in practically every way. And not at all one for reading. I mean, it's not that I'm disappointed with the quantity, it's the quality of what I read and also I was hit hard with a reading slump right smack dab in the middle that lasted a few weeks. So here's what I read in April!

Who Killed Christopher Goodman? by Allan Wolf 6/10 (269 pg)

My Review: Who Killed Christopher Goodman? by Allan Wolf

  Is it just me, or does the beginning of April feel like forever ago? I have hazy memories of this book, but I think it's about a boy who is found dead, and it's kind of like that ID Channel show Redrum where they show the murder in reverse. Goodreads can explain this book much better than I can. I liked it okay, liked the fact it was based off a true crime, but there just wasn't a ton of substance to make it more memorable, in my opinion. Very young YA, almost middle grade.

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon 8-8.5/10 (325 pg)
My Review: How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon
  I feel like I should have remembered more about this book than I did. I would go back and read my review of it, but honestly, I like these wrap-ups because they're a good indicator of how much a specific book has stayed with me. Occasionally, I'll go back and revise some of my ratings if I find I can't remember anything about a specific book. I mean, it's a sad truth, some books just have more staying power in my mind than others. Despite the fact that this book, about the shooting of a black guy by a white guy and everything that comes after, is a Very Important Book and thus should have stayed with me forever and ever, it didn't stick as much as it should have. And that makes me sad, because I did like this book very much when I read it. Still, the things that did stick with me- the convenience store owner thinking about how nothing ever changes while looking at the newspapers, the old woman looking at all the little children, the relationship between the pastor and the girl with low self-esteem- those were really great parts, and my memories of them alone let me keep this book's ratings at 8-8.5 out of 10.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut 9/10 (275 pg)
  I have no idea what to say about this book except that it was strange and brilliant and I will be definitely picking up more Vonnegut in the future. Maybe Breakfast of Champions? Or one of his short story collections? Let me know which Vonnegut you'd personally recommend.

Paperweight by Meg Haston 8-8.5/10 (289 pg)*
My Review: Paperweight by Meg Haston
  This was the first out of two eating disorder books I read this month, and the far superior one in my opinion. I was surprised to discover that this is not a fictionalized memoir like Believarexic by JJ Johnson, because it feels like one. This book felt real, and hopeful, and everything that is so necessary when writing a book about the subject matter it is about. Essentially, this book is about a girl who is trying to kill herself through starvation after the death of her brother, who she blames herself for. Her father panics and checks her in an eating disorder clinic where she is forced to confront her disease and her past. The writing is so beautiful I'd never guessed it was a debut novel. Recommended.

Sekret by Lindsay Smith 7.5-8/10 (341 pg)
My Review: Sekret by Lindsay Smith
  I like the idea of this novel more than the actual execution. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate the execution, but I just thought the idea the plot is based around is so fantastic it would be hard to actually live up to. Basically, this book is about a group of Soviet teenagers in the 60s who all have mind control powers and who are recruited by the KGB as part of a special program. How cool is that?! (yes, I used the dreaded interrobang. Fight me.) There's a fairly useless love triangle, too, but the book is a lot of fun. I'm not super pumped for Skandal, but the fact that it's a duology makes it a lot easier for me to want to continue on. 

Silent Child by Sarah A Denzil 3.5/10 (416 pg)*
My Review: Silent Child by Sarah A Denzil
  Ah yes, the beginning of my bad book streak. Well, I guess technically Don't Look Back would be the real beginning, but in my eyes this is the first one. I was in a mystery mood, and got this book cheap off Kindle so I read it. Supposedly, this book is about a woman who's trying to figure out what happened to her son, who has mysteriously reappeared after being missing for 10 years. The book ends up derailing around the middle part and by the climax has become just straight up comedy. To me at least. I'm sure if you loved Girl on the Train you would love this, but I personally didn't find it too appealing hence the low score.

Pretty Little Things by Jilliane Hoffman 8-8.5/10 (420 pg)*
My Review: Pretty Little Things by Jilliane Hoffman
  This was another Kindle buy, and I'm happy I did get it. The prologue kind of turned me off the book, but quickly I found myself intrigued by the characters and the plot and everything. It is about a girl who went missing, and the police discover that her disappearance may have something to do with the man she often talked to online and even agreed to meet up with in real life. While Hoffman's no Tana French, she knows how to write an addictive, realistic crime novel, and I definitely want to pick up her first series.

Don't Look Back by Jennifer L Armentrout 3/10 (376 pg)*
My Review: Don't Look Back by Jennifer L Armentrout
  I think this book actually pained me to read. Armentrout's writing style makes me feel like someone is pulling out my fingernails one by one. Slow and excruciating. I mean, the idea is decent- a rich girl is found after having been missing for like 3 days with a killer case of amnesia and apparent brain transplant. Her best friend has gone missing, and over the course of the novel she slowly begins to rediscover exactly what happened the night her friend disappears. But really, that's only about 10 percent of the book. The rest is basically contemporary shit about friends and boyfriends and drags like you wouldn't believe. Armentrout is honestly the one writer whose popularity I don't understand. I get John Green and Courtney Summers and authors like that, but Armentrout? She comes across to me as very dime-a-dozen, like anyone could have written this novel (and honestly probably would have done a better job than she did).

A Good Idea by Cristina Moracho 4/10 (357 pg)
My Review: A Good Idea by Cristina Moracho
  Another book I just didn't like. This book promised to be a creepy rural noir- hell, it even got blurbed (though I take those with a grain of salt) by Laura Ruby of Bone Gap fame. What this book actually was, was a fairly boring run of the mill revenge thriller that attempted to be creepy and good and interesting but just wasn't at the end. I found the main character hypocritical and insufferable, the portrayal of small town life to be small-minded and stereotypical, and the relationship toxic. Okay, so what was it about? Well, it's about a girl whose friend died, and she believes it was her (the friend's) boyfriend who did it, as he confessed but his confession was thrown out. So she, and this other chick she just met but is fucking anyway, decided to ruin everything just for the sake of revenge. I have such a hard time writing off revenge thrillers, because some can be really good (like Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan) but so many of them just have such insufferable, self-righteous heroines I have a hard time seeing their quests for revenge as anything but petty. Of course, that might just be because I don't really hold grudges myself- in my personal opinion, it's kind of a waste of energy, really.

City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C Anderson 4/10 (DNF) (60/401 pg)
  I didn't write a full review for it because I didn't really feel like getting far enough to write a full review and honestly, I didn't really want to write one anyway. I should have given this book more of a chance than I did, because it really did interest me and it got a ton of hype and it sounded really cool- about a girl from the Congo in Kenya who wants to take revenge on the man who killed her mother with some organized crime action, too. But I couldn't shake the feeling that I had read this book before. And then I realized that I had indeed read this book before- but it was called Six of Crows then. Seriously, the main chick is this small and ultra stealthy thief (it's really trendy to have thieves in books now; they're the new assassins) and the rules that would randomly show up just felt like the tired cliches they were and told me nothing new and this book was just trying so hard. Perhaps I would have stuck with it for longer if I was having a better reading month, but I knew this book would just end up pulling me deeper and, besides, I felt like I already knew everything that was going to happen anyway (the thriller aspects reminded me of A Good Idea, and I really do not like those types of mysteries). In short, this book was not working for me the way it should have, so I abandoned it at about 60 pages in.

Sad Perfect by Stephanie Elliot 7/10 (310 pg)
My Review: Sad Perfect by Stephanie Elliot
  The second of the eating disorder books and the mediocre one. It is about a girl named Pea who has a whole lotta issues, and her family life and angelic new boyfriend. While I did appreciate the insight into Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, the second person narrative felt clunky and ultimately unsuccessful- I would have preferred straight-up first person. Still, I didn't hate it and felt in a nice mood because I was sick of hating everything, so it got a higher score than it probably deserved.

Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman 7/10 (360 pg)
My Review: Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman 
  This was probably the hardest book to rate this month, as I wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. It's one of those wilderness survival camp stories that are so trendy right now, about a girl whose ex-opera singing mother has signed her up for the camp so that she could prove she was capable of going to some special snowflake school up in England. My thoughts towards the main character ping ponged a lot- sometimes I would be annoyed deeply by her, sometimes I would kind of like her, mostly, I just felt nothing. I think I preferred the parts outside of camp- the flashbacks and the like- the parts that were actually about the camp, if that makes sense. Overall, I mean, it's a summery contemporary. What harm could it do?

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng 8.5/10 (398 pg)*
My Review: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
  Fun fact about this book: I thought it was a mystery when I got it. It wasn't, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment of it at all. Actually, I don't think I can say enjoyment, because what this book is is deeply sad. The dysfunction of this family just weighed on me, and yet, like I was watching a car accident, I couldn't put this book down until it was over. Just one more chapter became my mantra. This book is about the golden girl of a family who is found dead, drowned in a lake, and the ways her parents pushed her that influenced her horrible final decision. Seriously, read this book, and then go hug your parents. That's what I did, anyway. 

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald 9.5/10 (reread) (180 pg)
  I reread Gatsby this month, because it's been a few years since my last reread of it and I needed something flawless. My thoughts haven't changed- Fitzgerald's still a genius in my eyes, the ending is easily one of the greatest ever written, and I still love the story. I think it's one of those rare perfect books.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt 8.5-9/10 (355 pg)
My Review: Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
  This was the sleeper hit of this month, the book I expected to only think was okay but ended up blowing me out of the water. This book is about a young girl whose uncle, who she is very close to, dies of AIDS and his boyfriend, who her parents hate because they think he gave the uncle AIDS, ends up befriending her because they are were both the closest to the uncle. That's a crap summary for a really fantastic book about love and AIDS and everything that goes along with it. Highly recommended.

Broken Harbor by Tana French 8.5-9/10 (450 pg)
My Review: Broken Harbor by Tana French
  The redemption of Tana French! After being underwhelmed with Faithful Place because it wasn't really a crime novel the way I wanted it to be, French's Broken Harbor knocked it out of the park. This book followed Det. Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy as he investigates the murder of a family- everyone but the mother, who lives- after they have been slaughtered in their McMansion development. It's an interesting story about the madness brokeness can bring upon a family, and how keeping up with the Joneses can ultimately prove fatal. I loved it.


Page total: 5,181
Average rating: 6.5-7/10
Genre breakdown: 7 mystery-thrillers
                 5 contemporaries
                 3 historical fiction
                 1 science fiction
Of those, 7 were adult and 9 were YA

So I read 16 books this month, which isn't horrible- my worst month is still January, when I only read 13 books. Still, I feel like thanks to that week of crap books, the entire month was kind of ruined. Ah well, here's to a better May! Hopefully...

*e-books