Boy Toy

By Barry Lyga, Published in 2007

       This book follows the development of Josh Mendel as he relieves and faces his past where he was molested by his seventh-grade history teacher. Now, let me tell you: this book is not for the faint of heart. A lot of this book directly relieves those encounters with his teacher, so you might get pretty uncomfortable. This is a book that might be pulled from more conservative shelves, if you know what I mean.
        But, that's only part of it. In fact, this level of description is probably intrinsic to the story, and allows you to come to a higher level of understanding with Josh and find a deeper meaning with the novel that would have been lost without this fearless exploration of Josh's past.
        Anyway, if this book was to be written at all, I think Barry Lyga was the perfect author to do it. In many parts, I found his writing to be both beautiful and inspiring; he is obviously skilled at his trade and should definitely keep doing what he does best. Take this quote for example, found on page 228-229 ( no spoilers, I promise!)

        "See, forgiveness doesn't happen all at once. It's not an event—it's a process. Forgiveness happens while you're asleep, while you're dreaming, while you're in line at the coffee shop, while you're showering, eating, farting, jerking off. It happens in the back of your mind, and then one day you realize that you don't hate the person anymore, that your anger has gone away somewhere. And you understand. You've forgiven them. You don't know how or why. It sneaked up on you. It happened in the small spaces between thoughts and in the seconds between ideas and blinks. That's where forgiveness happens. Because anger and hatred, when left unfed, bleed away like air from a punctured tire, over time and days and years.
        Forgiveness is stealth.
        At least, that's what I hope."

        Just beautiful. When I read this, I stopped just to read it again. I think I love this book. I'll probably go and read his other teen novel, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, right after this. Adults, you're missing out.

        The topic in this book was written with undeterred fingers. And it probably wasn't easy to write; it's not often that you get writing that so closely examines something that can be so shocking. However shocking it may be, throughout the novel you can definitely bond with Josh. In this book I could feel his anger, sadness, regret, empathy, love, humor, and everything in between. In short, this book was expertly written with a skilled hand that shouldn't be forgotten in the midst of the topic. As the novel progresses, you see true change and development in Josh that winds up into a truly cathartic and satisfying ending.
        To me, this book was worth reading and experiencing. It's definitely worth its salt. It was deft, complex, meaningful, and explored a new path that has left important meaning with Josh, the author, and me. If you give it the chance that it deserves, it can do the same for you.
        I rate this book a 5 out of 5. It deserves it. If it could be a food, it's sushi. Something strange and interesting that you've never tried before and curious about. Raw fish might be too much for you to handle, but if you can, it's delicious and totally worth it.

The Shadow Girl

by Jennifer Archer

     While cupcakes are delicious, these days with cupcake shops on every corner and gourmet cupcakes are almost more common than simple ones, I can't help but feel they are over done.

     Recently, I read The Shadow Girl by Jennifer Archer and I have to say, I was just like one of those gourmet cupcakes. The inside cover was very interesting, like a beautiful frosting maybe even a promising ganache, but like most cupcakes it just wasn't what it promised.

     The Shadow Girl is about a seventeen year old named Lily. Her father's death unveils secrets about her and the mysterious 'shadow girl' named Ivy who only she can hear.  She investigates her family’s past with the help of the boy next door and the hot new guy in town. Although some of the ideas are outside what most YA Lit is doing right now, there are a lot of classic side plots, that are a bit over used. I think people who liked The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E Pearson might like The Shadow Girl. 

     I would give this book a 2.

Cinder

by Marissa Meyer

I think I'm on a trend of reading a galley, then writing a review months later, when the galley is a published book. Let's break this trend. But not today.
I admit, I was initially attracted to Cinder by that classy cover. I mean, who really doesn't judge a book by its cover at all?

Cinder, living in the far, far future, is a gifted mechanic and a cyborg, living in New Beijing. Naturally, her father is dead and her stepmother abuses her, as well as being a second-class citizen. A fatal, mysterious illness is spreading everywhere, and her sister has caught it. There's political tension between Earth's inhabitants, led by Prince Kai, and the people living on the moon, who hold the cure to the sickness. Naturally, Cinder holds many secrets, most of which she doesn't know herself, that lead her to be the key to Earth's fate.

My absolute favorite part about this book is Cinder herself. It's been a while since I read a proper, good book about a strong female heroine who, against all odds, (might) save the day. Note: I said might. I will return to that later. Not only is Cinder a strong heroine, she doesn't get too deep into romantic shenanigans, she's a stellar mechanic (which attracts the prince - who says looks is more important than brain?), and she's a cyborg (facing all the odds - cyborgs are second-class citizens in this setting. I should clarify that cyborg, in this book, is not equivalent with robot. Cyborg's meaning is more along the lines of "altered human". Cinder was once human, but she had injuries that forced her to take robotic parts).
The setting was awesome. The villains, the people from the moon, were EXTREMELY awesome. They were evil in the best way - with motivation and cunning and power.

I only had two problems with the book. It's not really clear why cyborgs were so strongly discriminated against. I mean, I understand why, I just have a hard time picturing it. I can see, in our world, discrimination against the handicapped - we don't exactly think about them the same way as non-handicapped people - but not in such a bad way, and we don't fear them or anything. If Meyer had spent more time explaining this, I think I would have been happier.
Then, there was the inconclusive ending. The book pretty much ends with "Oh hey, I just found out what my quest is. Let's go do it --NOW WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL--". It was such an abrupt ending, such an obvious cliffhanger, I feel like the entire book is just a promotion for the next book. Ugh, I hate it when books do that! That said, I'm definitely going to read the next book.

I dub this book a 3.9, and in terms of food, it's some exotic, futuristic food that I can't think of. Something steampunk-ish, or sleek and gray, like our tall glass skyscrapers in Boston. It's a food that doesn't exist yet!

Marissa Meyer's website: http://www.marissameyer.com/
Oh, wow, this is her first novel. Now my respect for Meyer has gone up one level on the echeladder!

A Million Suns

By Beth Revis.
 
Unfortunately, I started this review back in February, and then kept forgetting to write it. So the details of A Million Suns aren't exactly clear in my mind. But the awesomeness has stuck!

Wow. A Million Suns comes as the sequel to Across the Universe and it blows Across the Universe out of the water. Elder is struggling with the repercussions of taking the ship's population off of the drug Phydus, Amy is coping with the thought of a life spent on the ship and dealing with exactly what feelings she has for Elder, and the general population of the ship is crumbling in discipline. Beth Revis throws lots of surprises into the book, and the ending is so thrilling, so absolutely amazing that I am SO EXCITED for the next book. I'm not going to give the ending away, but it is a big surprise and will have you jumping up an down.
Okay, on to some of the specifics. I adore the questions that the book raises about leadership, how we choose our leaders, and what exactly their role should be compared to that of everyone else. After all, Elder has been groomed for a life of leading Godspeed. But now that the ship's population isn't drugged anymore, they want a say in how the ship is run. The chaos in the ship is a miniature of the chaos that occurs in countries when their leadership collapses. Revis really develops Elder as a complex character, which I loved.
Amy, on the other hand, could use some more development. Most of her character is consumed with anxiety over the attack by Luther and friends in Across the Universe. And while it is completely understandable that she would be traumatized by this, I wanted her to do a little more.
As with Across the Universe, there are a few holes. The main characters discover a lot of secrets about the ship, which are all very exciting, but the big question is why wouldn't they have explored some of these areas earlier? After all, we already see Elder beginning to push boundaries in Across the Universe. So why wouldn't he do something as simple as, say, peek through a few more doors or look out the window? Sometimes the characters are a little too dense about what's going on around them.

Overall, though, A Million Suns was even better than Across the Universe. Thinking back, I would probably lower the rating for Across the Universe to a 3.7, and give A Million Suns a 4.1. For food, A Million Suns is these wonderful peanut butter cookies with peanut butter and milk chocolate chips.  Delicious! Now all that's left to do is count down the days until the January 15th release date for Shades of Earth, the conclusion to the trilogy. Yippee!

Here's Beth Revis's website: http://www.bethrevis.com/
And the Across the Universe website: http://acrosstheuniversebook.com/

See You at Harry's

By Jo Knowles

Fern is your average 12 year old girl. Just starting to ride the upper school bus with her older brother Holden, she's ready for big things. At home, her out of high school sister has to work at their parent's diner, Harry's, as well as watching their baby brother Charlie.

When the book starts, Fern is describing her best day ever, setting up her relationship with her family and how she feels around them. It's a truly touching moment. Then, the story begins as the family is driving to the restaurant to see a surprise from the dad. At the diner, surprise! They're making a comercial while wearing stupid shirts, all to raise popularity. Then they get their big break. "See you at Hawee's!" A line shouted by Charlie at the end. Then business is booming. So, the reader watches Fern struggle with her family, homework, school, friends, helping Holden, watching Charlie and deal with life.

But then the unthinkable happens.

This book was a really good read, all the characters are very relatable and easy to love. You really get to connect with them, look into their lives. Then, when the unthinkable happens, you totally live through it with them. I was just bawling for an hour while reading.

It gets a really high 4 rating. It wasn't the best I've ever read, but I really like it. As for food, is there any food that makes you sad for whatever reason? If so, take that and multiply the sadness by 10, then you got it.

Chime

by Franny Billingsley

                 _ _               
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/ __| '_ \ / _ \| | |/ _ | '__/ __|
\__ | |_) | (_) | | |  __| |  \__ \
|___| .__/ \___/|_|_|\___|_|  |___/
    |_|                               

     You may know this book for several reasons: the absolutely stunning cover, the simple and memorable title that has been in the literary news quite a lot since its publication, or the entire Chime-Shine brouhaha last year. In case you remember that, you'll know that both Chime and Shine (Lauren Myracle) were moving high up in the National Book Award rankings. In the preparation for the final 5, a call was made; Chime was chosen, but Shine was understood over the telephone. In a national debate (keep Shine, make six candidates, stand by the mistake and remove Chime) the organization decided to keep Chime in the top 5. It was all very sad and unnecessarily involved, but the fact remains that both books were wonderful, amazing candidates for the list. I've now read one of them, and no doubt Shine is an incredible read if were to offer competition to Chime. Enough with this confusing background and onward!
     As I've hinted at, I found Chime to be an exquisitely beautiful and scintillating read. I've been wanted to read it for a long time, but I finally received it as a gift from a friend. At first I wasn't too thrilled about the setting and scene--20th century British middle-of-nowhere, swamps, people constantly sick, jerk-hat townspeople, eldritch monsters and a vaunted religion-- but Billingsley's writing is so clean, so superb, so powerful, that it had me by the neck before I could even think about putting the book down again. The writing is so incredible in that it shows the rare lucid humor that other books force; Billingsley does not rely on clichéd plotlines or deus-ex-machinae, rather using brute elegance to weld a novel that is a rare honor to read.
     What makes Billingsley's work such a pleasure to read is her gift of plot movement. The plot of Chime, first off, is convoluted and complex, but Billingsley handles it in a way that makes it still very fluid and logical. It may be a bit confusing at times, but you'll thank her later. Billingsley writes her plots with skill and poise. The mysteries slowly reveal themselves, but in a magical way: you as the reader will probably realize some things just a step ahead of Briony, the narrator. Billingsley will then tell you what you'd already guessed at, but in a twisty way that is so refreshing and pleasant, letting you as the reader feel that you have not spoiled anything for yourself. My writing is convoluted as I try to gush praise for the pace of this book. By the end you've realized one surprise on your own and BAM you're clocked over the head with two more.
     Briony is the almost the best character ever, in a completely objective way, of course. She has flaws to stretch for days and she's a mean, depressed piece of impulsive work, but her character development is so masterful and tender that the reader has no recourse but to like her, instantly and irreversibly. Briony is a witch. Briony can do magic. Angry Briony means people are hurt. Briony is drawn to the swamp. Briony in the swamp means people are hurt. She broke her stepmother's back and blew up a factory. Briony is, in a word, swashbucklinglycool.
     This book only has a few flaws, and they aren't exactly jarring; the writing, while elegant and beautiful, doesn't describe elegant and beautiful things; The Night Circus, which I read later, was more pleasing to read simply because of the beauty of the writing complementing the beauty of the things being described. I'd give this a 4.5.

The Night Circus

By Erin Morgenstern
      I recently finished The Night Circus, and my first advice for any prospective reader is the following: read this book in one sitting. I read it in five hours, albeit on an international plane ride that lasted foreeever. I'm not a fast reader, by my friends' standards, but this book takes ahold of its reader in a way that makes it impossible not to rip through it. On that note, I demand that everyone be a prospective reader. The Night Circus was singularly the most beautiful, most elegant, most achingly lovely book I've ever read. If I had to describe it simply, I'd say it's Harry Potter meets Hunger Games meets The Great Gatsby meets Chime meets pure literary magic. If you're still here, rather than running for the bookstore or for the kindle webstore, seriously. It got me through an eight hour plane ride. Some books leave you aching and empty when you finish them, unable to imagine enjoying any other book; a reader's nightmare and holy grail. When I finished The Night Circus, I sat (rather uncomfortably...thanks, Delta) dazed for a long time...Superfreakonomics was in my backpack, but I just couldn't imagine picking it up. Anyone who's read Freakonomics will know this for the high praise it's meant to be; I've been waiting for years to read Freakonomics' sequel.
In case you're at this point neither an offended economist nor gone to a bookstore, I'll give a brief synopsis of the plot. The plot spans from 1873 to 1903 and the focal point is mostly London in the late Victorian era. Prospero the Enchanter is an illusionist performing with a mundane circus, but he himself is nothing of the sort. He lives with a secret, but he doesn't hide it; he performs in public for thousands of people, passing his illusions off as mechanical sleight of hand, albeit of the highest possible calibre. He is lying, for he is a strongly gifted magician. His tricks are real, powerful, and completely flabberghast the public, who remain blissfully unaware of his true talents. His doves have no concealed cages, and his disappearances are not through trap doors. In the words of the man himself: "[Other illusionists] are a bunch of fish covered in feathers trying to convince the public they can fly, I am simply a bird in their midst. The audience cannot tell the different beyond knowing I am better at it." He is stunned when his daughter shows up out of nowhere, all of five years old, her mother's suicide note pinned to the cloth of her jacket. He starts to show his true self already at this point, ignoring the emotional impact of the suicide note and instead preparing to dismiss the girl, but she breaks his teacup, showing all the innate talent and gift he enjoys while struggling with her temper. He immediately takes her in and starts teaching her to use the magic of the universe, at the same time summoning an old acquaintance.
This man, henceforth The Man in the Grey Suit or Mr. A. H--, accepts Prospero's terms. A challenge is agreed upon, and the little girl is the first player, bound by a charm and spell to prepare, her entire life, for the challenge. The Man in the Grey Suit vanishes after promising to find his own student, but first he and Prospero agree on "the venue"--a circus. The Night Circus. Mr. A H-- finds his own pupil, Marco, and the two students settle into their training independently and with absolutely no contact or knowledge of the other. Celia's father slices her fingertips open, each and every one repeatedly, until she can heal all ten at a time, and the Man in the Grey Suit brings Marco all around the world without introducing him to any people at all; he spends his days locked in a library, at first, and then the MitGS brings him to a flat in London, completely abandoning the boy with only a vague warning: keep preparing for the challenge.
The circus is made, the acts found, Marco and Celia independently bound to it, one as the manager's assistent, one as a performing Illusionist. The challenge begins. The circus is their playing field, the only rule "no intereference", and the winner is decided upon the other's death. A previous winner of the challenge shares, hauntingly, that "[My] opponent is now a pillar of ash standing in a field in Kyoto... Unless wind and time have taken her away."

What makes this book such a surpassing pleasure and privilege to read? The characters, the setting, the writing, the sheer poetry of a book scribed in prose.
The characters are, simply, stunning. What one will find all too often in fiction is that there are a few archetypes that dominate, their authors leaving the characters' characters simply up to the reader's imagination for full detail. If this is not the case, it is because there is one or two characters at most whom the author affords a personality. Even the characters in Harry Potter aren't as well crafted as these, and they've had SEVEN books to grow through. Lord of the Rings isn't about the characters; it's about the plot. Katniss and Peeta are shallow compared to Celia and Marco. The Night Circus is very much about the characters. Erin Morgenstern crafts each and every character, scores of them, with the masterful precision of an artisan. After finishing the book I know each character's motivations, their loves and peeves, what makes them tick and breathe and toss and turn in the night. I can imagine their reactions in any situation I can think of and I know why the plot runs as it does. There is absolutely no outside power in the book; no government, no natural disasters, not even the limitations of staying in one geographic locale. The Night Circus is its own world, and it moves like a whisper through the larger universe. Every singular event  in the book is a result of one character's actions, one character's growth and wishes and dreams, one character's will. The duel in this book isn't a magical battle, a straight-up fencing match with two sides and a whole lot of roaring fire and wind. The battle is for the hearts and souls of the characters, of the Night Circus at large. Morgenstern writes two sets of siblings, for Pete's sake, that are linked solidly--so solidly that in any other book they would not be diverse characters. Lainie and Tara Burgess should, by all rights, be indistinguishable sisters; they are described as seemingly identical and their personalities are perfect complements and almost identical, but they are so much more. I can't do them justice, so read the book. There's also a set of fraternal twins who grow up in the exact same circus environment, but both are completely different and at the same time perfect together. Such a pleasure to read great characters.
There's romance, but I can't really review romance, but I will say that it's one of the veeeeeeeeeery few romances I have ever liked in books. Really. My friends will tell you. I usually hate romance. This romance was very, very awesome. That's all the justice I can do it.
I should discuss a bit of the Night Circus as well, being that it is the setting and title, but I think I'll leave it for you, the reader, to discover by yourself. Pure magic and poetry. Erin Morgenstern wrote little segments in between parts and acts to immerse the reader into the Night Circus on its own right; these parts are exquisite and embracing.
       I don't know how much more praise I can give this book, and I guess I can say that I can't give this book enough praise. This book gets as much five-stars as I'll ever be able to give a book. This book is now the standard of a book for me.
      If this review hasn't convinced you to run out and get it RIGHT NOW, please run out and get it RIGHT NOW and sorry that my review wasn't convincing enough.