The Lace Reader

Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Magical Realism

Length: 390 pgs.

Synopsis: The last time Towner read lace, a form of psychic reading, her twin sister drowned and Towner ended up in a mental institution. Now after 20 years(?) Towner's great-aunt/adopted mother has gone missing and Towner is called back to Salem. After finding out what happened to her aunt, sort of, Towner and a local police detective end up investigating another missing woman and a local cult leader, who just happens to be Towner's uncle. The plot of this story isn't linear and is very hard to explain.

Review: I have a problem with unreliable narrators. I'm an incredibly gullible person who tends to take things at face value when I read, especially when the story is told in first person. How could you lie to me when I'm inside your head?! Well...

I liked Towner from the beginning. Towner is in recovery from surgery when she first gets the news about her auntand having just undergone surgery myself, I was very concerned about the amount of traveling and exercise she was undertaking so soon during her recovery. I absolutely loved the secondary characters. Towner's hermit mother living on Yellow Dog Island infested by packs of wild golden retrievers (Take a minute and picture that. Remote Island. Adorableness running rampant. Ok, back to the story). Having been fascinated with the Salem witch trials since middle school earlier, I'm surprised I didn't read this book when it first came out.

Until the last 50 pages or so, I would have given this book four stars and then the twist happened. I'm not going to say what it is, just that I did not see it coming. And now I kind of want to re-read the entire book to see if there were any clues and I'm just ambivalent, or if it was just an oddly written book. In any case, the twist changes the entire feeling of the book and it made me doubt everything I had just read. That being said, if you like family drama, the Northeast, and sort-of-witchy witchiness I would actually highly recommend this book even though I only gave it 3 stars.

The House of the Scorpion

Considering that this YA novel won so many awards and is read by pretty much every middle schooler ever, I cannot believe that I hadn't really heard of it let alone read it. I was randomly looking up young adult books to read for a young adult book club and this was one I came across with many awards behind the title. It was vetoed as a book club choice, but I put it on my to-read list anyway. I can't say that I loved it, but I am glad that I read it.

The House of the Scorpion brings up some interesting moral and ethical dilemmas like cloning, free will, and use of power. Matt, as El Patron's clone, finds out quickly that he is not viewed like other little boys in the drug land of Opium. Matt's coming of age story has its moments, but to me it seemed like Matt's voice from early childhood to teenager didn't change very much. He still seemed very childlike. This was part of why I got bored with it. I wanted a young adult book that actually spotlighted a young adult, not a child. Plus, the last third of the book just went in a completely different direction, and seemed unnecessary.

Overall, I think if I had been in middle school or even high school I would have enjoyed this book much more. As an adult, it was underwhelming. I enjoyed reading it, but it wasn't nearly as good as I expected it to be with all the awards it won. With that said, I checked out the sequel at the same time as The House of the Scorpion, so I started reading The Lord of Opium. We'll see if this one is better. Stay tuned!

Pretty Girl-13

Hmm....I really expected to like this more. I know that may sound....weird (for lack of a better word) when thinking about the subject of the book but it could have been written so well. I know that this book is out there to educate kidnappings/sexual abuse that in the end come to happier conclusions (Elizabeth Smart, Jaycee Dugard, etc.) but there were no surprises here. I found myself thinking, "was that supposed to be a surprise?" "Really? That's the "twist"?" and I guess I'm not sure what I fully expected from this book. It did it's job in introducing the world to a character that you could almost relate to. I thought some of the plot lines were a little weird. I really loved the idea of exploring Disassociative Identity Disorder and the reality of being in a situation you are beyond dealing with and your body basically taking over. But, and this is a big one, this could have been MUCH better. I applaud the author for taking a really hard subject and giving it a voice. Not often in literature for teens do certain sort of taboo subjects come up.

Angie, our main character, goes camping and the suddenly finds herself back on the street she lives on. She goes home and her parents are elated to see her. She doesn't understand that three years have passed because she doesn't remember them. Her alternate personalities are basically shielding her from what has occurred so the last thing she remembers is leaving to go camping and then winds up home instead.

I found I couldn't relate to Angie as a person. The story felt like a story and not a world that I could try to understand and join. It lacked some sort of emotion for me that would have made it seem more realistic or at least made the characters more realistic. I also had a hard time accepting her "alters" as real characters. The interactions with them were strange and kind of detracted from the story a bit for me.

I wouldn't say I don't recommend that you read this, just that it really wasn't for me. 

It was actually kind of funny...

Not going to lie, I fully expected to hate It's Kind of a Funny Story. It's written by Ned Vizzini, who published Be More Chill while I was working at B&N, which truly earns the award for worst title and worst cover art in the history of YA fiction.

I'd also seen trailers for the movie and it didn't really seem like my kind of thing.

The book ended up being not quite so bad. It starts off with a a brilliant hook: "It's so hard to talk when you want to kill yourself." I was instantly interested. Ultimately, this book about teen suicide ends up being much mroe upbeat than I expected. 16 year old Craig Gilner worked for a year preparing for the entrance exam for an elite high school in New York. Once he got in, he realized that now he actually has to attend this school with other kinds who were also smart enough to be accepted. Reeling from the fact that he might not be as exceptional as he assumed, Craig starts suffering from depression. It gradually gets worse, until he can no longer sleep or eat and he starts contemplating suicide. When he calls a suicide hotline found in one of his mom's self-help books, he's told that the suicide hotline is actually overwhelmed with calls that night and his best option would be to go to the emergency room. Through a series of unlikely concidences, Craig is admitted to the locked adult psychiatric wing where he has to stay for at least five days, or until the doctors think him well enough to rejoin society. Over the course of those five days, Craig finds himself: he realizes that pre-professional school really isn't for him since his real love is art (nevermind that he hasn't drawn since he was four), and that realization changes his life for the better - he achives what he calls a "shift.

Craig's self-depreciating tone turns what could be a very depressing read into something more; it's real, and intimate, and funny. The issues Craig faces, most obvious the pressure of figuring out who you are would be relateable to many teens. In the end, though, I found the book to be too unbelievable to truly love. The give day turn-around seems awfully quick. Craig's problems are instantly gone when he checks into the hospital; he can now eat, makes friends quickly, finds a girlfriend, has his first sexual experience, and has a breakthrough. The overall message was great, but it was tied up in a neat little bow that I found unrealistic and would add even more pressure to teens facing their own issues.

Lastly, do teen boys really think about sex as much as Craig does in this book? If so, I fear for the future. He meets a girl while in the hospital and his entire focus is on making her his girlfriend. Is it not enough to be friends with this girl? That doesn't even occur to him. And honey, you met this boy yesterday. In a psych ward. And you're 16. Can we not let him get to third base? Have some respect for yourself.

Elite

Go ahead. Judge me. It's fine. No, really it is. I loved the first book in this series. Loved. A dystopian novel meets the bachelor? Oddly enough...sign me up!!!

I didn't expect it either. The cover drew me in with the pretty dress and the premise was unlike anything I had read before and that was all it took. The main character has an AWFUL name. America Singer. I know. There is definitely a love triangle but I thought the first book did an ok job with it. America didn't seem super hung up on guy #1 and guy #2 is 'The Bachelor' so he was new. I can understand the torn feelings since she also sort of got dumped and forced into the competition.

Anyway, the love triangle really almost ruined book 2 for me. I was so fed up with the main character I was ready to scream. Why did I keep reading? My love for book 1 forced me to persevere. I was starting to get really upset because America would be with Maxon and then tell him "I need more time. BUT I really care for you. I will be here for you" Then she would go dink around with Aspen and tell him how much she still cared for him and he still had a place in her heart. Then she would do the same thing all over again!! Not only would she do that but she got all pissed off at Maxon for kissing a couple of the other girls after she and Aspen made out! I despise double standards and that alone almost made me up the book down.

I will still read book 3 because I have to know how this ends. If she picks Aspen I will be super pissed. I think he's kind of a tool. Unsure if I am excited but I will read it anyway. I will give this 3 stars still so that's acceptable.