On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“Maybe memories should be left the way they are.”- On the Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta 

I'm dreaming of the boy in the tree. I tell him stories. About the Jellicoe School and the Townies and the Cadets from a school in Sydney. I tell him about the war between us for territory. And I tell him about Hannah, who lives in the unfinished house by the river. Hannah, who is too young to be hiding away from the world. Hannah, who found me on the Jellicoe Road six years ago.

Taylor is leader of the boarders at the Jellicoe School. She has to keep the upper hand in the territory wars and deal with Jonah Griggs—the enigmatic leader of the cadets, and someone she thought she would never see again.

And now Hannah, the person Taylor had come to rely on, has disappeared. Taylor's only clue is a manuscript about five kids who lived in Jellicoe eighteen years ago. She needs to find out more, but this means confronting her own story, making sense of her strange, recurring dream, and finding her mother—who abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road.

Firstly, I have no idea what to call this book. It was originally published as On the Jellicoe Road in its native Australia, and I think in England as well, but in America it was retitled to Jellicoe Road, for reasons I don't know and probably weren't very good in the first place since in my personal opinion On the Jellicoe Road flows better. It's like the opposite of what happened to I Am the Messenger. After much hesitation (read: 5 second deliberation) I went with On the Jellicoe Road because the novel is more widely known under that title and when I want to sound all cool and English Major-y I'll abbreviate it as Jellicoe Road. Or Jellicoe Rad, if I type it too quickly and forget the o. It's cold here, so my fingers are a little frozen.

Anyway, I honestly haven't wished I liked any book more than I actually did more than this book. I figured I would love it, that it would emotionally impact me and I would laugh and cry and the writing would be beautiful and I would immediately begin searching out everything Melina Marchetta ever wrote. That didn't happen. I think the last time I felt this way was when I read We Were Liars, and thought it was only okay. 

I first heard about this book a few years ago. The plot intrigued me, and I liked the title, so I filed it away for later. By the time later came around, I had been fully absorbed in the worlds of Goodreads, book blogs, and BookTube, and this book in particular made quite a few favorite books of all time lists. So I renewed my interest for it and, on a recent library run, picked this book up along with Daughter of Smoke and Bone, The Passion of Dolssa, Cinder, and a few other books I should have read years ago but didn't. Also, when I re-encountered this book, I realized that the author was Australian and I was fully aware of the amazingness of most YA Aussie authors, from Markus Zusak (who is a God among authors, really) to Scot Gardner to Lucy Christopher to Randa Abdel-Fattah. They write contemporary the way contemporary should be written. So, when I wasn't automatically sucked into this book, I was disappointed. And when I was about 50 pages in and still not in love, I was beginning to question whether or not I was broken.

Maybe my first mistake was starting this book the same day I finished Marina. Ah, Marina, the book that caught my attention from the very first page, the book whose characters captured my heart and whose plot captured my imagination. But I realized this, and when I wasn't immediately taken with this book I figured I was just in a book hangover and should have found something A List of Cages-esque. Or maybe try to finish The Cellist of Sarajevo. I found myself shying away from this book every time I reached near it, always detouring away to pick up my iPad and watch YouTube instead. Ironically, it was mostly BookTube. But this morning, I finally sat my ass down and blew through the last 300 pages in one sitting. I was underwhelmed. 

There was so much filler, and the mystery felt dragged. Perhaps it felt dragged because around 100 pages in and once I grasped enough of Narnie and Webb and Tate and Fitz and Jude, I placed my bets as to which character each of them ended up being. I got five for five, in case you were wondering. But Marchetta isn't Tana French, I'm afraid. While it's true with French's work that I did guess who it was two times out of three, I still held onto the story because I wasn't sure if I was right or not, and because it was a murder, I wanted to know how it happened and what the motive was. In this book, it seemed fairly obvious to me who everyone was, and the entire book seemed like Taylor, our main character, was just trying to catch up, making me (unintentionally, I swear!) think she was a bit slow. 

And while I like the idea of there being a war between the Townies, the Students, and the Cadets, it got in the way of central mystery. This is also a very busy book, and that just made the central plot seem muddy and made me feel bored and restless. My eyes were jumping all over the page, looking for something that happened that had to do with the kids from the 80s, who by far had the more interesting story and felt the most developed. If all the extra stuff was cut out, and this book was just about Taylor trying to find her parents, or about Taylor trying to uncover the mystery of these teens from the 80s, then it would be spectacular. But no, we had to get in the turf war and then the romance and a whole bunch of other stuff I just didn't care about. Hell, I wouldn't even have minded if the book was just Hannah's manuscript or just about those characters, because I wanted more from them. I didn't care about Taylor, who felt underdeveloped. In my notes, I put down that it was rare I care more about the plot than the characters, but that in this case I did. The parts with the manuscript excerpts were fascinating and engrossing, as well as some of the more contemporary-seeming parts with Taylor and her group of friends. Those parts brought back glimmers of the summer-y, nostalgic feeling I get when reading certain really good contemporaries, like The Lies About Truth or Invincible Summer or I Am the Messenger. But those feelings didn't really stay with me consistently, the way they had with the above books. They would be there for maybe a paragraph or two, and then flit off, just leaving me disappointed and just wanting Taylor to catch up and solve the mystery so the book can be over.

But the writing was pretty even if it did make my head hurt at times, and the ending was nice. I ended this book feeling solidly okay. There are glimmers of a good story here, just too much filler. I felt like this to the point where I felt motivated to write a summary of how the plot should have been treated. Here it is:

After her mother abandons her, 17 year old Taylor Markham finds herself living with Hannah, the woman whom her mother appointed as her guardian on the Jellicoe Road. One day, she discovers a manuscript Hannah has been writing about a group of teenagers living on the road in the 1980s. She meets a group of cadets who go to Jellicoe Road as a training camp, and their enigmatic leader, known only as the Brigadier, who seems to have a strange but strong connection with Hannah. With the help of Raffy and Santangelo, two kids she meets in town, as well as Santangelo's younger foster sister Jessa, and cadet Jonah Griggs, she works to uncover the mysteries of Jellicoe Road, along with the mystery of her mother. 

To me, that would have packed the same emotional punch that this book had and would have been far more centered overall. Hell, maybe someday I'll write a story like that. But for what we got, I didn't hate it, and I can see why so many people loved it. I just wish I was in that group of people. Recommended for a YA contemporary fan, if just to read the book that can probably be considered the definitive YA Aussie novel. I still want to read another well loved Aussie contemporary- maybe Graffiti Moon?

7.5 out of 10

Winter Reading Recommendations

I don't know about you, but I find myself to be very seasonal genre-specific. Sure, I don't stay strictly by these genre rules- if I want to read a, say, historical fiction novel and it's summer, then I will read it. But I still have a tendency to lean towards certain genres of books certain times of the year. Like in the winter, I read a ton of historical fiction, especially from cold climates, like Russia, or during Wartime, as well as some literary fiction sprinkled in. So based off these traits, I give you some winter book recommendations, along with some of my favorite books I've read this past winter. I'll try not to do obvious book recs- you all know I adore The Book Thief, for instance, but I assume most bookworms have at least heard of it, and either have read or want to read it. So here are my top ten winter reading recommendations for those cold, snowy days. I've linked my reviews to the ones that I've written them for.

Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekbäck

  One of my favorite discoveries so far this year- I believe I gave it a 8.5 or 9 out of 10- Wolf Winter is a dark historical mystery with some magical realism elements following a woman, her two daughters (especially her eldest, Frederika), and the local priest as they uncover the mystery of who murdered a man in the Swedish Laplands during the early 1700s. This atmospheric novel is perfect for the winter, with its cold prose and dark, slightly unsettling subject matter.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

  If you want another atmospheric historical mystery, Burial Rites is the book for you. I read this book last year, and, though it didn't make my official favorite books list, it became one in retrospect. I gave it the same rating as Wolf Winter. This book is based off the story of the last execution in Iceland, in the early 1800s, following a woman who is accused of the murder of two men. It also includes the perspective of the family she is sent to live with her final days (which also includes two daughters) and the village priest who is meant to spiritually guide her. If you loved Wolf Winter, you will love this book, and vice-versa. The prose is a bit more ornate, but the atmosphere is just as good. 

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

  Read this book fairly recently, in December. Sadly, though, this book was a bit overshadowed in my eyes because of his other book The Tsar of Love and Techno, which would have been my favorite book of last year if it wasn't for The Road. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena follows mostly three people- a man, a doctor, and an eight year old girl in Chechnya in 2003. The girl's father has been kidnapped by Russian soldiers, and her neighbor finds her and takes her to a hospital where a lone doctor, Sonja, who is also dealing with the disappearance of her younger sister, can take care of her. There are some other storylines in this wonderfully complex story, but they all come together at the end. The writing is unmatched. It takes a while to get through, but it's worth the read and I gave it an 8.5 out of 10.

Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit

  This book is a literary YA historical fiction read, though I think anyone can read it. It's also another book I read last summer, though in my opinion it's perfect for the wintertime. It's about a Polish girl in 1939 Krakow, which, if you know your WWII, is when Hitler invaded Poland and kickstarted the European war, and the Germans have taken her father, a linguistics professor. She runs into the Swallow Man, and the two begin to travel across the Polish wilderness together. There's some magical realism elements, and don't try too hard to figure out the plot, but this book is one of the only books I've ever read that deserved its comparison to The Book Thief. I gave it an 8 out of 10, but I'm sure those who like magical realism more than I do would love this book.

All That Is Solid Melts into Air by Darragh McKeon

  The second of the Russian novels (believe it or not, I limited myself to only 5!). This is an end of the Soviet Union novel- something you don't see much in Western literature- following a 9 year old piano prodigy living in Moscow, his aunt who used to be a journalist but now makes car parts, her ex-husband, a doctor who is sent to Belarus to deal with the outcome of Chernobyl, and a Belarusian boy who loses his home because of the meltdown. I read this book in January, and it has stayed with me since. The subject matter may be dark, and a little scary, but the writing is completely engrossing. I gave it an 8.5 out of 10.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

  My third favorite book of last year, which I read in September, the same month it came out. I enjoyed his first, but this book just completely blew me away. It's a lot more light-hearted than prior entries, one of those books you can just curl up in some comfy chair during a snowy Sunday and just get lost in. This book follows Count Alexander Rostov, who is placed under house arrest by the Soviets in the 1920s, soon after he returned to Russia. It's very much a meandering story while we get to know the inhabitants of the hotel and the various pieces of his life. I was utterly charmed by this book, and gave it a 9 out of 10.

History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

  Despite the fact I didn't actually like this book all that much, it's on this list because I'm sure someone might like it more than I would. This is a literary fiction novel about a girl whose family used to be the leaders of a failed cult, who, when a new family moves in across the lake, becomes close with the mother and her young son. This book takes place in Minnesota, and does also have a dark, cold atmosphere to it, and is relatively short, making it a perfect snow day read. And it is well-written, even if I only gave it a 7 out of 10.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

  This is the most well-known of the books I chose, but it is still perfect for this list. This book, if you've never heard of it, follows a Lithuanian girl who is taken by the KGB in the middle of the night with her mother and younger brother and put on a train to Stalin's Siberian labor camps. It's a really engaging story about something I knew little about before reading this book, and is the book responsible for my interest in Russia and the Soviet Union. It's well written, impressively historically accurate, and a great read for a winter's day. I gave it an 8.5 out of 10.

City of Thieves by David Benioff

  The perfect book for a budding russophile, City of Thieves takes place in Leningrad after the Nazi takeover during WWII. Our main character has been arrested for looting, and thrown in jail with an army deserter. Instead of being shot, they are sent on a mission across enemy lines to find a dozen eggs for a Soviet colonel's daughter's wedding cake. It's funny, gripping, and short, the kind of book you can read all in one sitting. I gave it a 9 out of 10.

We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen

  Yes, this book is over 600 pages. But it's the perfect book to read during the cold winter season. I don't know about you, but this time of the year my thoughts often turn towards the sea, and as such I picked up this book. It takes place over the course of roughly 100 years in a small shipping town in Denmark called Marstal, and four generations of its inhabitants. While it does drag a bit in the middle, and despite its seemingly dry subject matter, it's one of those books where once you finish it, you'll feel so accomplished. Also has one of the most unique narrative styles and best endings I've ever had the pleasure of reading. It got an 8.5-9 out of 10.

So what kinds of books do you like to read in the winter? Do you agree with any of these choices? Let me know in the comment section below!

Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“Our body begins to destroy itself from the moment it is born. We are fragile. We’re creatures of passage. All that is left of us are our actions, the good or the evil we do to our fellow humans”- Marina, Carlos Ruiz Zafón

In May 1980, fifteen-year-old Oscar Drai suddenly vanishes from his boarding school in the old quarter of Barcelona. For seven days and nights no one knows his whereabouts. . . .

His story begins in the heart of old Barcelona, when he meets Marina and her father Germán Blau, a portrait painter. Marina takes Oscar to a cemetery to watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the fourth Sunday of each month. At 10 a.m. precisely a coach pulled by black horses appears. From it descends a woman dressed in black, her face shrouded, wearing gloves, holding a single rose. She walks over to a gravestone that bears no name, only the mysterious emblem of a black butterfly with open wings.

When Oscar and Marina decide to follow her they begin a journey that will take them to the heights of a forgotten, post-war Barcelona, a world of aristocrats and actresses, inventors and tycoons; and a dark secret that lies waiting in the mysterious labyrinth beneath the city streets.

The book wasn't on my list. I looked down at my phone, where the call numbers I had carefully typed into a notepad document and then sent to myself, to be screenshotted and used as a guide, and back up at the book. I don't know what it is that drew me to it. The cover? Definitely not. Maybe my subconscious recognized the author's name as being the same guy who wrote The Shadow of the Wind, a book I recently bought off Amazon because Regan told me to. Maybe it was because this book was different than the ones usually on display, more obscure than the usual Six of Crows, Throne of Glass, fantasy fare that typically makes the tops of shelves. Whatever the reason, I picked this book off the display shelf and opened it up to read the summary. Intriguing. And then, at the bottom, the words "cult classic". Sold. 

I have a strange attraction towards cult classics- a few of my favorite movies of all time and my current favorite show are cult classics. I added the book to the growing pile on the table, reasoning to myself that I would read The Shadow of the Wind first and then this book after if I liked the above. That way, if I hated his writing, I could just return this book unread, and it wouldn't cost me anything. But for some reason, I found myself, while looking for some new reading material, picking this book up first. I found myself falling into the world Zafón has created, a Barcelona of dreams and nightmares all at once. 

And oh my God, guys, this book was absolutely fantastic. If I had to describe it, it would be Edgar Allan Poe meets Frankenstein with added Bioshock and some The Phantom of the Opera thrown in for good measure. If any of that sounds interesting to you, then pick this book up now. The characters are perfection. The plot is intriguing. The writing is enchanting. Seriously, Zafón's descriptions of Barcelona will make you want to hop on the nearest plane to Spain right now. Over the course of reading this book Barcelona has shot up my places to visit list to where it now rests comfortably under Prague. And the descriptions themselves are easily some of the most perfect descriptions I've ever read. They flow seamlessly through the passage, and I can visualize the setting perfectly. Even the reason for the descriptions makes sense, because the narrator Oscar wants to be an architect.

This book was also funny. I don't know why that surprised me, but it did, especially since I actually laughed out loud at some of the parts and was moved to tears by some parts, both rare emotions for me to have while reading. Like I said before, too, I actually loved all the characters. I didn't mind copious amounts of time dedicated to the backstories of each of the characters, because each one interested me. While Oscar, the narrator, was the least developed character, I still got a sense as to who he was through his actions and still rooted for him over the course of the novel. Besides, I like narrators like Oscar. The story isn't necessarily about him, it's about the story of Mijail Kolvenik and Eva Irinova. And Marina's story too. Oscar just is our gateway to those stories. 

My only real issue with the writing was an abundance of said bookisms- he mumbled, she shouted, I concluded, etc. But I didn't find myself that bothered by them. The ending also felt a bit like a different story too, but I wasn't that bothered by it either. In fact, I loved the ending, just as I loved the middle and the beginning. This book took me kind of a while to read for a book its size, because I wanted to savor it and also because I was scared it would pull a This Savage Song, where I loved the beginning and the middle but despised the ending. Not this book, which was so goddamn good throughout. 

My recommendation? Read this book. I should amend, maybe not for the fate of heart, since it does get pretty gory and kind of frightening. But it's Gothic/horror, what would you expect? This is another book that would make a great video game, something along the lines of Bioshock. I can't wait to read The Shadow of the Wind now. Something tells me that Carlos Ruiz Zafón is quickly going to fly up my list of favorite authors. I hope so, at least. As soon as I finished this book I ordered my own copy, where it will sit right next to my Zusak shrine.

9-9.5 out of 10

The Sky Between You and Me by Catherine Alene Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“I wish I could explain, what it was like. Fingers counting the bones that were becoming me.”- The Sky Between You and Me, Catherine Alene

Lighter. Leaner. Faster.

Raesha will do whatever it takes to win Nationals. For her, competing isn't just about the speed of her horse or the thrill of the win. It's about honoring her mother's memory and holding on to a dream they once shared. 

Lighter. Leaner. Faster.

For an athlete. Every second counts. Raesha knows minus five on the scale will let her sit deeper in the saddle, make her horse lighter on her feet. And lighter, leaner, faster gives her the edge she needs over the new girl on the team, a girl who keeps flirting with Raesha's boyfriend and making plans with her best friend.

So Raesha focuses on minus five. But if she isn't careful, she will lose more than just the people she loves. She will lose herself to Lighter. Leaner. Faster.

I think I mentioned this in one of my other blog posts, but when I was first getting back into reading after a two year slump, I picked up a lot of eating disorder books, as well as rape and other VII (very important issue- you'll see this one a lot) books. While I've mostly moved away from those kinds of books, I still find myself reaching for books about eating disorders on shelves. Also, I wasn't really loving the book I was reading at the moment, and decided I needed some YA contemporary. And I realized that this book took place on a ranch and had horses. I love horses, and I didn't even care that it was about Western riding (barrel racing in particular) and not English riding. You see, around the same time I was reading those eating disorder books, one of my favorite blogs was Mugwump Chronicles, about a woman who was a working cowhorse trainer out in Colorado. While she hasn't updated since the October of 2015, I still love going through her archives and rereading her posts about her life with horses. With this book, I was hoping to achieve the perfect combination of the two for a book that the Laura of 2015 would have loved.

And I did like this book. Quite a bit, actually. Perhaps if I was reading this at a different time, I would have rated it much lower than what I did end up giving it, because there are some flaws that I would have butchered most books for. I didn't think Alene's decision to use poetry as the narrative vehicle was very successful, for one. This book would have worked better as straight up first person prose. Or something like JJ Johnson's Believarexic, where she transitioned from poetry to prose. Maybe prose then poetry then prose again, to mimic the process of the disease? The characters, with the exception of Raesha and her father, were also pretty one dimensional, and I found some aspects of this book a bit confusing.

Another thing is just a general observation, but I noticed that dead mothers in YA novels almost have a manic pixie dream girl quality. They're always kind and quirky and beautiful and selfless and all kinds of other adjectives. I mention this here because the dead mother in this book most definitely has this. I find this mildly annoying, but not enough to completely subtract from my enjoyment of the book.

Because overall, I did enjoy this book. I liked Raesha just fine, and found myself relating to her loneliness as another girl seemed to take her place in her boyfriend and best friend's lives. I also liked how, if this was a typical YA or YA romance novel Raesha would be the villain- the jealous girlfriend of the love interest who appears to hate the sweet, innocent new girl main character without any real reason to. You know, like in The Problem with Forever. I also liked the Western vibe, even if I wanted more of the actual barrel racing. I wish Alene had touched on the impact riding has on Raesha and didn't fast forward through many of the barrel racing parts. I also loved the refreshing family dynamics shown, with a real stand-up single dad character. 

Raesha's eating disorder was sensitively and skillfully done. Eating disorders in fiction are hard to write about, especially given the sensitivity of the disorder. I appreciated how Alene didn't mention any specific numbers about her weight (or even her height, which factors into weight, given that the shorter you are the less your healthy weight will be). While it stuck out a bit when Raesha mentioned she had gone X amount of hours without food, I can see and get behind why Alene would be reluctant to put an actual number to the hours, probably realizing that if someone was going to read this book while in recovery that could likely set them off. Those parts of the book are well done. 

This book definitely isn't for everyone, and I can see why it got rated on the mediocre side on Goodreads. But it worked for me, and again, I think a lot of had to do with the time I read it. While this was a long book, it was a quick read, but then again novels in verse are always easy for me to get through and the verse took me back to reading Ellen Hopkins' 600-700 page books in like 2 hours (and feeling completely emotionally drained afterwards). I do recommend this book if you're looking for a good quick VII read.

8 out of 10

Beautiful Broken Girls by Kim Savage Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“The quarry had absorbed the girls, delivering them to a place where they would remain untouched by hands, and unbroken by hearts.”- Beautiful Broken Girls, Kim Savage

Remember the places you touched me.

The parts of Mira Cillo that Ben touched are etched on his soul.

Palm. Hair. Chest. Cheek. Lips. Throat. Heart.

It was the last one that broke her. After her death, Mira sends Ben on a quest for notes she left in the seven places where they touched—notes that explain why she and her sister, Francesca, drowned themselves in the quarry. How Ben interprets those notes has everything to do with the way he was touched by a bad coach years before. But the truth behind the girls’ suicides is far more complicated, involving a dangerous infatuation, a deadly miracle, and a crushing lie.

Why I continue to read YA mysteries Lord only knows. Maybe it's because I'm loyal to a fault and would rather blame the bad streak I've had with YA mysteries on my own bad picks rather than on the genre itself. 

Such was the case with Beautiful Broken Girls. The eeriness of the cover made this book pop to me, and I was drawn to it the minute I stepped into the library. Even if it kind of looks like she's bathing in milk. 

It was fine at first. The introduction reminded me of Deep and Dark and Dangerous, a children's ghost/baby horror story I loved when I was a little one. But there was something that didn't feel right to me. I had a hard time concentrating and really getting into the story. I felt like that from the very first page I should have been immediately drawn in and intrigued by the story, but I had a hard time connecting. There was nothing wrong with the plot- in fact, the plot had a lot of promise, and the characters were mildly intriguing, so I placed my lack of engrossment down to the writing. At first, I couldn't pinpoint what was wrong with the writing, just that it didn't really work, but as I read on the flaws became more apparent. The writing is both flowery and disjointed, really amplifying the messiness of the plot and making me think that Kim Savage bit off a little more than she could chew tackling this novel. There were tons of adverbs and adjectives that didn't work well- I wrote down two examples: "called crustily" and "hated...keenly" that stuck out to me in particular- and I had no real emotional attachment to the characters. I felt as if I was a faceless audience member, looking on with cool passivity at everything that happened in this book. The two words that kept sticking in my head were detached and uninterested. I couldn't hate the two sisters or emphasize with Ben the way I was supposed to because they couldn't get any emotion out of me. It didn't feel haunting, just hollow.

The dialogue was also unrealistic. I was amazed by how little the characters in this book acted like people. For instance, at one point one of the characters described Ben as "the kind of kid a pedophile might like". Who in the hell describes people like that? Frankly, it seemed like even the characters were as uninterested as I was about the situation they were in. And so many dramatic things happened in this book that I just stopped caring. The magical realism elements came out of nowhere, and made me think of The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. However, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is by far the superior novel. There were some glimmers of a good story, and I liked some elements, such as the Catholic theology and ritual bits, and I loved that it focused on Italian Americans. There aren't many YA novels that follow Italian Americans, and though I'm not my area is probably 85-90% Italian. Still, I'm a bit disappointed with some of Savage's decisions in her portrayal of Italian Americans, like Mr Falso who reads like a Guido stereotype. There's also a strange scene when Ben notes Mr Falso's cross necklace, commenting that it looks like something another character's brother would wear clubbing. Kind of strange, especially since almost all the Italian American guys I know wear crucifixes themselves. Not really a big deal. Mira's also not an Italian name, but whatever. 

There's quite a few heavy handed symbols, like Mr Falso's name being, well, Falso. Even if you didn't know Italian, that's a cognate. The other is the fairly obvious Christ metaphor with the holes in Francesca's palms. Both are delivered with all the subtlety of a brick to the head. 

I was also disappointed with the way the child sexual abuse of Ben was treated. It was merely a plot device, meant to make him seem "broken". It makes me sad that the stories of male victims never seem to be treated with the same care and compassion that the stories of female victims are. I wish boys had as many books to read and relate to as girls do when it comes to that subject. 

Overall, when I think about this book one word sticks in my head. Underwhelming. Which is a shame, because I wanted to love this book, I really did. But if you are looking for a mystery, you'll be sorely disappointed. This isn't a thriller as much as it is a contemporary. If you loved The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender you might like this one too, but I don't know. Perhaps I should have read The Virgin Suicides before this book. Maybe then I would have appreciated it more.

4.5-5 out of 10

If you liked this book, you may also like:

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

If you are at all curious as to how modern YA contemporary, or even just YA contemporary in general came to be, I would point you towards two books in particular: Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak and this one. In both, you will find the characters, and more specifically, the subject content whose influence is so obviously felt in so many YA contemporary books, especially the Very Important ones. Some people include other books like John Green's Looking for Alaska, published around the same time as the above two novels, or The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger's most famous work (though not, in my humble opinion at least, his best). I haven't seen any novels that explicitly drew influence from Looking for Alaska, though maybe if I read it I would see more obvious similarities between contemporary today and that book, and while I definitely realize The Catcher in the Rye's influence on the genre today, I think of that book as more of the grandfather of YA, kind of like what The Velvet Underground was for the punk movement. The point of this is that if you want to understand YA contemporary and why it is the way it is, if you read this book the genre will make a lot of sense to you.

Yes, this was my first time reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I think I should have read it back to back with Speak or 13 Reasons Why (another one of those books that had a huge influence on the YA world, but I wouldn't consider it to be a definitive book the same way the above two are) in like 2015. Probably would have absolutely loved it back then. Now, I don't know. There was something lacking in this book, that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Development, maybe. None of the issues, or the characters really, felt fully developed so I had a hard time caring about any of them. Even Charlie, the main character. The book probably would have benefited more from a regular first person POV instead of having the letters because maybe then we might get better character development. I felt a disconnect from almost everyone in the book, even Charlie. Which is a shame, because I could have really loved Charlie. He was the kind of male hero I adore, and with better writing, I would love him as much as I loved Ed Kennedy from I Am the Messenger or Aaron Rowe from The Dead I Know. Maybe Chbosky should move to Australia.

Probably a lot of this book has to do with the writing style. Charlie sounded a little young for 14, and it was very beige: "This happened. And then this happened. It made me feel this." etc. I have nothing against beige prose or sentence fragments, considering that one of my favorite authors makes use of both all the time, though to a far less choppy effect. I understand why Chbosky chose this style, but it just grated on me at the beginning. The writing seemed to improve as the book went on, but I wasn't sure whether it was genuine improvement or I just got used to the style. There was also lots of name dropping of famous books or various bands and movies, but, again, it felt just like name dropping. Apart from a few surface-level mentions about how they made Charlie feel, I didn't get the feeling that Charlie was that influenced by them. It was more to show Charlie's relationship with his teacher than anything else, and establish him as someone who has those tastes in books and movies. I'm a firm believer that, if you need to name drop a certain artist or book, it should tell you something about that character's personality or inner thoughts and feelings. I was also displeased with the amount of telling and not showing, which makes sense because Charlie is 14 and "writing" this book through his letters, but we did also get a lot of unnecessary telling of Charlie's personality traits. We didn't need the fact he was a wallflower spelled out to us, it's evident not only in the title but also in his interactions with the characters.

I wonder now if the something holding me back was the overabundance of issues. This book was clearly the forefather of the issue book, because Chbosky threw in everything. Homosexuality, drug use, domestic violence, teen pregnancy, sexual abuse, etc. Whenever I surfaced from this book, I just felt exhausted. Not even emotionally attached, just exhausted. Not as tired as I feel after reading an Ellen Hopkins book, but it was the same kind of feeling. At several points, I just wanted this very short book to be over with. It was a shame, because I honestly think Chbosky had some good and unique points about things like cliques that you just don't see in YA contemporary nowadays. One of my favorite moments was when Patrick was talking to Charlie and he mentioned that (and I'm paraphrasing) the only difference between their clique and the football players is what clothes they wear and why they wear it. I really liked that. I also really enjoyed Chbosky's portrayal of family dynamics. The people you'd expect to be completely villainized (his dad, his football-playing older brother, his grandfather) are shown in a new and refreshing light. I wish when it came to family dynamics more YA contemporaries took this lead, instead of going for the emotionally detached parents of books like Speak. But overall, even those things I liked just felt dull.

This was the most 90s book I've ever read. Very grunge, very 10 Things I Hate About You, minus Heath Ledger (sadly). I could see why my friends active in the DIY scene really liked this book. But it just wasn't really for me, anymore at least. Sure, it was really interesting to read the book that had such a strong influence in YA, the book that's considered The Catcher in the Rye of this generation, but I just wasn't feeling it. Probably because I didn't actually like The Catcher in the Rye all that much. Still an interesting read nonetheless. Recommended if you haven't read it yet or if you want to start reading YA contemporary. Again, read it alongside Speak as an introduction to the genre.

6.5-7 out of 10

Mosquitoland by David Arnold Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“Sometimes a thing doesn't seem real until we say it out loud.”- Mosquitoland, David Arnold

I am a collection of oddities, a circus of neurons and electrons: my heart is the ringmaster, my soul is the trapeze artist, and the world is my audience. It sounds strange because it is, and it is, because I am strange.

After the sudden collapse of her family, Mim Malone is dragged from her home in northern Ohio to the "wastelands" of Mississippi, where she lives in a medicated milieu with her dad and new stepmom. Before the dust has a chance to settle, she learns her mother is sick back in Cleveland.

So she ditches her new life and hops aboard a northbound Greyhound bus to her real home and her real mother, meeting a quirky cast of fellow travelers along the way. But when her thousand-mile journey takes a few turns she could never see coming, Mim must confront her own demons, redefining her notions of love, loyalty, and what it means to be sane.

Told in an unforgettable, kaleidoscopic voice, Mosquitoland is a modern American odyssey, as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.

Some people should die, that's just unconscious knowledge

Yes, that is a (rather aggressive) Jane's Addiction lyric to start off with. Fight me. I couldn't stand this book. The fact I even read it in the same week as We, the Drowned makes it even worse. That was a masterpiece, a future classic. Mosquitoland reads like David Arnold shit out a thesaurus. 

My biggest problem with this book is right there on the cover. Mary. Iris. Malone. God, she's such an anomaly, isn't she? She's just so different and witty and snarky and quirky, right? And smart too. Because, she, like, uses big words. Oh, and don't forget rebellious. Because she, like, steals her stepmother's coffee can full of money, and runs off a thousand miles away to Cleveland to visit her enabler mother without even giving either her very worried stepmother or father the courtesy of a phone call, only to act shocked when they file a Missing Persons report despite the fact that she's sixteen fucking years old and with a history of (supposed) mental illness. And we're supposed to root for her? 

If you can't tell, I hated her. I hated her stupid pretentious inner monologue. I hated her contrived dialogue. I hated how she acted so selfishly, acting like the horrible things she did to people were supposed to make her real. She had a serious case of Special Snowflake Syndrome, to the point where she self-describes herself as an anomaly because, and get this, she prefers the ocean to the lake. Not only that, she wants to both read a book, and go to a party. Oh, and she actually read Brave New World in high school, and also spends her lunch periods pondering the works of Christopher Nolan (because we all know he's a true artist of film). 

And here's the thing, even though she's supposedly smart and so different from the rest of her classmates because she uses big words and "reads books", there's no real sign of her being exceptionally intelligent. The pop culture she references aren't particularly sophisticated. She likes Elvis and Johnny Cash and other older artists. I like those artists, too. She makes references to The Lord of the Rings, and one brief one to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (though she calls it Cuckoo's Nest, which Arnold must think makes her sound so literary, but sounds stupid as hell to me), as well as Brave New World. And that's it. Her bookishness is nonexistent unless told to us, as well as most of her other interests. Her personality is made up of informed attributes, making her flat as the paper this book is printed on. Hate to break it to ya, Mim, but you ain't special. I know high schoolers who read classics like Crime and Punishment for fun and analyze David Lynch films at lunch. Hell, I was one of those high schoolers. I didn't think I was anything special. I just assumed I was an individual, just like everyone else. 

Other issues, other issues. Okay, I hated the letters. I hated the writing (trying too hard, says I) (also, lose the all caps and interrobangs, you're writing a novel not a blogpost). But one thing that really got under my skin was the way medicine is portrayed. Arnold must have known it was a mistake to show anti psychotics as the devil plot of Big Pharma, because he did attempt to make it up at the end, but too little too late. If a kid who actually did suffer from auditory hallucinations read this book, and saw how Mim actually stopped taking the medication she was prescribed to help with that exact problem and she ended up being perfectly fine. Not only that, it also turns out that the medication was what was causing her nausea! So really, her going off this medication was the best thing ever. What if that kid goes off his medication because of this book? It's rare that I pearl clutch like this, but it's extremely irresponsible of Arnold to include this. And no, I don't care that Mim isn't actually mentally ill. Because honestly, like so many things in this book- divorce, mental illness, sexual assault, etc- it is nothing more than a plot device to Arnold. There was another part that actually managed to, well not offend me, but just, I don't know, make me hella uncomfortable. Basically, at one point Mim and Love Interest (Beck) actually take Walt, who has Down Syndrome, to an animal hospital when he comes down with food poisoning. Let that sink in. And then later, they describe him as being their pet. At that point, my eyebrows were sky high. 

I have too many other things to bitch about and too little time, and besides, I think I've going to sound like a broken record because frankly Mim could have discovered the cure for cancer and I'd still tell her to go fuck herself. So I'll just say this: if you like John Green, you will love this book. If you don't, then this book would probably turn you off YA contemporary for a while. I haven't been this angry since It Takes One.

2-2.5 out of 10

fuck you Mim