YAnnabe » 4 Stars

Review: Lips Touch

Kelly — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:00:24 +0000

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Title: Lips Touch: Three Times
Author: Laini Taylor
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: This book was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award.

Summary: Three stories, each about a different girl and a kiss. And no ordinary kiss, either. These kisses carry a dangerous promise to forever change the girls’ lives.

Review: I must read more by this author. Soon after I started this book, I was jotting down page numbers of quotes left and right. When I hit page 100 and had filled up an entire post-it with page numbers, I decided I’ll just have to reread this someday.

These stories are weird, but deliciously so. They reminded me of Pretty Monsters, which I also loved.

The only reason this book didn’t get 5 stars from me is that the ending of the first story let me down a bit. I wanted more conclusion, but I don’t read many short stories so I’m probably just not calibrated for them.

Here’s a taste for you from the first story about a girl named Kizzy whose grandmother has just passed away:

Sometimes Kizzy imagined her grandmother knife-fighting her way down the long tunnel of death, but mostly her daydreams were of a very different nature. She daydreamed of slow-dancing with Mike Crespain and of sitting on his lap at lunch while he hugged her around the waist instead of Sarah Ferris, his knuckles resting lightly against the underside of her breasts instead of Sarah’s. She daydreamed about having slim ankles like Jenny Glass instead of peasant ankles like the fetlocks of a draft horse. About smooth hair instead of coarse hair, sleek hips instead of belly dancer’s hips. About a tinkling laugh, and a butterfly tattoo, and a boy who would tuck his hand into her back pocket while they walked, and press her up against a fence to suck her lower lip like a globe of fruit.

That’s hot. The next paragraph is even better, but I would’ve had to give you more background to the story.

So go read it for yourself!

Your Turn: What’s the last book you read where you found yourself jotting down a ton of quotes?

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Review: Story of a Girl

Kelly — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:29:13 +0000

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Audience Pick!

Title: Story of a Girl
Author: Sara Zarr
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: Deanna made a mistake when she was 13. A big mistake. Her father will never look at her the same way again, and she can’t shake her nasty reputation at school. So how is she supposed to move on?

Review: I just resubmitted a request to my library to order Zarr’s latest, Once Was Lost. Because this woman can write.

I liked Story of a Girl even more than Sweethearts, which I liked quite a lot. This gritty story completely swept me away. I felt like I was reading about a real girl and her real problems.

The opening:

I was thirteen when my dad caught me with Tommy Webber in the back of Tommy’s Buick, parked next to the old Chart House down in Montara at eleven o’clock on a Tuesday night. Tommy was seventeen and the supposed friend of my brother, Darren.

I didn’t love him.

I’m not sure I even liked him.

I want more book recommendations from you! You’re making me go back and read “old” YA instead of just getting caught up in whatever hot new thing just hit the shelves. Without that feeling of obligation to do what you say, I don’t know if I would have the discipline to branch out from recent releases.

Your Turn: Got a book recommendation for me? Please leave it in the Pick My Next Book box to the right of this post!

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Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Kelly — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:47:23 +0000

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Title: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Author: Carrie Ryan
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: This was a title in Rhiannon’s Dystopia Challenge, not to mention I’ve read a ton of glowing reviews.

Summary: Mary lives in the last known human village in a world overrun by the undead. A system of fences separates the humans from the Unconsecrated who crave their flesh. When the fences aren’t enough to protect her family and then the man she loves asks another to marry him, Mary is forced to join the Sisterhood.

Review: Man oh man, I loves me a good dystopia. I devoured this zombilicious story in less than a day. I was a little skeptical about that tricky little thing called suspension of disbelief because, c’mon. Zombies. But aspects of this world were eerily plausible.

From a writer’s perspective, this book is an excellent example of how to not go easy on your characters. As a reader, I ate up every juicy bit of it. Mostly. In a few spots when hope was as scarce as a tan in a throng of zombies, I wanted a silver lining. Even a speck of metallic dust would have been nice.

Still loved it, though. And oh dear, the Mary and Travis scenes. Mmm. Imagine me using my best zombie voice when I say “MORE!”

A little taste for you:

It is a complicated process, giving a living human over to the Forest of Hands and Teeth. The Guardians found out years ago that the transfer cannot be done too early because a live human cast into the Forest is nothing but food for the Unconsecrated who will tear at their flesh and eat until there is nothing left.

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Review: The Key to the Golden Firebird

Kelly — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:39:46 +0000

Audience Pick!

Title: The Key to the Golden Firebird
Author: Maureen Johnson
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: After their father’s heart attack, their mom starts working overtime and it’s up to the three Gold sisters—May, Palmer, and Brooks—to pull through it on their own.

Review: This story is about how grief can turn you into a zombie. And Johnson’s humor was the perfect way to temper the heavy topic.

Although I’m not usually a fan of alternating points of view, it worked for me in this story because a common grief united the three girls.

Here’s the first part of May’s story to give you a taste for the rest of the book:

May Gold’s actual name was Mayzie. As far as she knew, this was not a real name. It was a made-up, moon-man-language name based on Willie Mays, one of the most famous baseball players of all time.

All of the Gold girls were named after baseball players, a testament to their father’s obsessive love of the game. Brooks was named after Brooks Robinson, twenty-two-year veteran of the Baltimore Orioles. Palmer was named after Jim Palmer, who was considered to be the best pitcher in Orioles history. May’s sisters’ names had relevance in their lives. They played softball. (Palmer was, in fact, a pitcher.) Also, Brooks and Palmer were kind of cool-sounding names. May could imagine a Brooks or a Palmer working in a law firm or becoming a famous artist. Mayzie was someone who had a washing machine on her front porch and turned up on some trashy talk show for the “My Mom Married My Brother!” episode.

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Review: How to Ditch Your Fairy

Kelly — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:51:05 +0000

Title: How to Ditch Your Fairy
Author: Justine Larbalestier
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: I never miss a post on the author’s blog, so I figured it was time I read a whole book by her.

Summary: In the city of New Avalon, most people have a fairy that helps them with something, like finding loose change or great clothes at bargain prices. 14-year-old Charlie has the lamest fairy of all, so she sets out to ditch it. All is going according to plan until she gets a crush on a new boy at school, who then falls victim to another girl’s every-boy-likes-you fairy.

Review: In the language of New Avaloners, this book was vastly doos! I zipped through it but drug my feet on the last few pages because I didn’t want it to be over. It was a complete and utter delight to read, but the story still had substance behind it.

My favorite part was the fresh use of language. It even has a glossary at the back! (doos: cool, ace, brilliant) Also, Charlie had such a sweet, non-dysfunctional relationship with her parents, which was refreshing.

I’ll let Charlie take it from here:

I have a parking fairy. I’m fourteen years old. I can’t drive. I don’t like cars and I have a parking fairy.

Rochelle gets a clothes-shopping fairy and is always well attired; I get a parking fairy and always smell faintly of gasoline. How fair is that? I love clothes and shopping too. Yes, I have a fine family (except for my sister, ace photographer Nettles, and even she’s tolerable sometimes) and yes, Rochelle’s family is malodorous. She does deserve some kind of compensation. But why couldn’t I have, I don’t know, a good-hair fairy? Or, not even that doos, a loose-change-finding fairy. Lots of people have that fairy. Rochelle’s dad, Sandra’s cousin, Mom’s best friend’s sister. I’d wholly settle for a loose-change fairy.

Your Turn: I loved Larbalestier’s writing so much I’m considering adding her Magic or Madness trilogy to my series TBR list. If you’ve read that series, please let me know whether it’s worth the time commitment!

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Review: An Abundance of Katherines

Kelly — Sat, 30 May 2009 05:22:40 +0000

Title: An Abundance of Katherines
Author: John Green
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: I loved Paper Towns by this author, and I read some glowing reviews of this title.

Summary: Colin Singleton has just graduated from high school, only to be dumped by his girlfriend Katherine—the 19th time he’s been dumped by a girl named Katherine. To end his funk, Colin and his best friend go on a road trip. First stop: Gutshot, Tennessee.

Review: Do you like anagrams, math, random trivia, or let’s see…the kind of funny that makes you laugh out loud no matter if you happen to be reading next to your child who is finally, finally sleeping after a 2.25-hour-long struggle? Then you’ll love this book. And if your sense of humor hasn’t been supremely dulled due to parental sleep deprivation, just imagine how much MORE you will enjoy it.

At one point, I was laughing so hard I had to put the book down so as not to damage it. (The hog hunt scene, for those of you who’ve read it.)

I also loved how smart and genuine the main three characters were—Colin, his best friend Hassan, and the girl they meet in Gutshot. I was sad to have to stop listening in on their conversations.

This book will show you a good time. In fact, if one day I’m in a public restroom and I happen to glance up at the stall door to see

Call “An Abundance of Katherines” for a good time

followed by its Dewey Decimal Number, I wouldn’t be surprised, not at all.

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Review: Saving Francesca

Kelly — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:53:20 +0000

Audience Pick!

Title: Saving Francesca
Author: Melina Marchetta
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: Francesca goes to a formerly all-boys private school where the only thing co-ed is the fact that girls get their own bathroom. But that’s not even her biggest problem—why does her usually peppy mom refuse to get out of bed?

Review: Ah, I could read Melina Marchetta’s books all day, every day. I loved Jellicoe Road more than this book, but I still adored Francesca’s story.

This woman should teach a class in writing dialogue, if she doesn’t already. The dialogue she writes is clever without being pretentious. And funny. Actually, forget being jealous of how the author writes the dialogue, I’m jealous of how these kids speak. If I could be that quick with a comeback, I would be the coolest ever.

Another thing I loved is how Francesca has guy friends who aren’t interested in her romantically. They’re just really, truly her friends.

Finally, a little taste for you. A boy named Will put the moves on Francesca, and she confronts him about it:

“I don’t want you to think I do that all the time,” he says, sounding a bit strained.

He’s very stressed. I have caused that stress. I am jubilant that I have caused that stress.

“Why would I think otherwise?”

“Because,” he says.

Because?

“Don’t you do legal studies? Aren’t you in mock trial? Does the argument ‘because’ usually work for you?”

He doesn’t even have the decency to be shifty-eyed. He just stares straight at me.

“You were drunk, Will,” I say after a moment. “I wouldn’t expect you to even remember anything.” I turn to go.

“If I was sober, you would have been impressed,” he says, repeating my words from that night.

“But you weren’t. And I’m not,” I say firmly. “And if you think that I am praying at night for you to ask me out, just dream on.”

I walk away, so proud of myself that I can hardly contain it.

***

Dear God, please please please let Will Trombal split up with his girlfriend and ask me out.

The prayer becomes my mantra all night.

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Review: A Curse Dark as Gold

Kelly — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 21:53:37 +0000

Audience Pick!

Title: A Curse Dark as Gold
Author: Elizabeth C. Bunce
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Summary: Charlotte Miller’s father has passed away, and it’s up to her to protect the woolen mill that’s been in her family for hundreds of years. But everyone says the mill is cursed. How far will Charlotte go to protect it?

Review: This retelling of Rumpelstiltskin immediately reeled me in. The details of the mill operation brought the story to life, even though I didn’t know all the milling terms used. Looking back on it now, I think a diagram or two of the milling machines could have helped me keep the terms straight as I read. Hopefully in future editions, they will devote a page or two at the front to something like that.

A lot of fairy tale retellings can be unimaginative, but this retelling is fresh and original. That’s saying a lot for a story whose bones have been around for ages.

I also loved the strong female character who doesn’t go running to the men in her life to solve all her problems. And she’s a small businesswoman, to boot!

This is an excellent first novel from Bunce, and more than deserving of this year’s Morris YA Debut Award.

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Review: Me, the Missing, and the Dead

Kelly — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:22:26 +0000

Title: Me, the Missing, and the Dead
Author: Jenny Valentine
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Summary: 16-year-old Lucas finds an old lady in an urn, who just so happens to have some connection to his missing dad. If he can find out who the dead lady was, can he find his dad?

Review: From the brief description of this on Amazon, I wasn’t interested. It sounded like a ghost story, and I don’t do ghost stories. Or scary movies, for that matter. I’ve been known to sleep with the light on after a particularly creepy episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for Pete’s sake.

But this book was a finalist for the Morris YA Debut Award this year, so ghost or not, I decided to give it a go.

What an odd little story. I loved it.

It made me laugh, but it also made my heart ache as Lucas comes to grips with his dad’s disappearance. Here’s a taste for you:

If we ever find my dad and he’s dead, I’m going to organize the biggest funeral you’ve ever seen…We’ll play the best music, and everyone he ever knew and liked will be there and cry their eyes out and say really nice things about him. Afterwards, back at our house, we’ll have the best wake and nobody will want to leave. They’ll look after Mum and make sure she’s OK. They’ll phone her every week instead of being too embarrassed to say anything or ever call because there isn’t a body and they’re a bit busy with work and they were his friends really, not hers.

On the funny end of the spectrum, there’s this scene where Lucas interrogates his little brother like a cop, which cracks me up to think of it even now, a good 2 weeks after I finished the book.

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Review: Pretty Monsters

Kelly — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:19:15 +0000

Title: Pretty Monsters: Stories
Author: Kelly Link
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Summary: A collection of nine short stories covering pressing matters such as Tennessee Fainting Goats, a boy named Onion, and of course, monsters.

Review: This Indie Next pick did not disappoint. I’m not usually a short story reader—they tend to be a little too symbolic for my literal disposition—but this gorgeous cover stopped me in my tracks at the library.

When I flipped the book over, first I saw a quote from Libba Bray, whose books I absolutely adore. And then I saw this:

“…an alchemical mixture of Borges, Raymond Chandler, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” — Laura Miller, Salon

I’m a sucker for a Buffy compare, so I added it to my teetering stack of books to check out. And I am so glad I veered out of my comfort zone because this book frickin’ ROCKS.

Between these two gorgeous covers are stories to make you laugh out loud. Stories to make you wonder. Stories to make you look over your shoulder and swear to never go camping again.

This book is weird, but in a good way. A little taste for you:

But Jake didn’t try to kiss me. Instead he just gave me this really big hug. He put his face in my hair and he sighed. We stood there like that, and then finally I said, “What are you doing?”

“I just wanted to smell your hair,” he said.

“Oh,” I said. That made me feel weird, but in a good way. I put my nose up to his hair, which is brown and curly, and I smelled it. We stood there and smelled each other’s hair, and I felt so good. I felt so happy.

Jake said into my hair, “Do you know that actor John Cusack?”

I said, “Yeah. One of Zofia’s favorite movies is Better Off Dead. We watch it all the time.”

“So he likes to go up to women and smell their armpits.”

“Gross!” I said. “That’s such a lie! What are you doing now? That tickles.”

“I’m smelling your ear,” Jake said.

And then:

Jake’s hair smelled like iced tea with honey in it, after all the ice has melted.

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