All The Things We Didn't Say

Expected Publication:  April 10th, 2014

The Museum of Intangible Things

By: Wendy Wunder

Razorbill

ISBN-13:  9781595145147

Loyalty.  Envy.  Obligation.  Dreams.  Disappointment.  Fear.  Negligence.  Coping.  Elation.  Lust.  Nature.  Freedom.  Heartbreak.  Insousiance.  Audacity.  Gluttony.  Belief.  God.  Karma.  Knowing what you want (there is probably a French word for it).  Saying Yes.  Destiny.  Truth.  Devotion.  Forgiveness.  Life.  Happiness (ever after).

Hannah and Zoe haven't had much in their lives, but they've always had each other.  So when Zoey tells Hannah she needs to get out of their down-and-out New Jersey town, they pile into Hannah's beat up old Le Mans and head west, putting everything - their deadbeat parents, their disappointing love lives, their inevitable enrollment at community college - behind them.

As they chase storms and make new friends, Zoe tells Hannah she wants more for her.  She wants her to live bigger, dream grander, aim higher.  And so Zoe begins teaching Hannah all about life's intangible things, concepts sadly missing from her existence - things like audacity, insousiance, karma, and even happiness.

Review

     Hannah has a thing about stability and sticking to the status quo.  She just wants to take care of everyone in her life and make sure things stay on track, the way they are supposed to be for everyone.  Hannah keeps her alcoholic Dad on the wagon and goes to his AA meetings, does everything at home for her Mother who has pretty much given up on life, keeps her hotdog cart business running to make money for community college, and keeps her best friend Zoe in check.  Zoe is the best thing in Hannah's life and it's up to her to keep Zoe from losing herself in a disease she refuses to acknowledge - bipolar disorder.  But then everything comes crashing down around Hannah.  She and Zoe are caught listening in on classes at the local private school, so their days of extra lessons are over.  Hannah's Dad falls off the wagon, goes on a bender and steals all of her college money from her savings.  Zoe doesn't get into the artsy University she wants to go to and heads into a downward spirl of grand delusions, hallucinations and manic days.  When Zoe throws herself into a bizzare road trip, she drags Hannah along for the ride.  Learning important life lessons while trying to keep  Zoe off the ledge she's teetering on, Hannah is becoming someone who's not afraid of life.  But can she save Zoe from herself before it's too late?

     I have a confession to make.  I was reading this book expecting a fun, crazy road trip book centered around two best friends from a dead end town.  I got that, but I also got a disturbingly realistic, and yet touching look at mental illness and the way it affects everyone in its path.  As I started reading this, my family had just committed my mother to the hospital for bipolar disorder, when she ran out her medication (with no possible way to get more) of 15 years and went into a severely psychotic manic state.  So I was reading this book, having just experienced a scarier version of what is portrayed in this book.  In this book Zoe thinks she's on top of the world, that she can do whatever she wants and there won't be consequences, because she's almost superhuman.  She doesn't need to eat, sleep or slow down because the aliens have been preparing her to come be with them.  

      Hannah is Zoe's anchor.  They have a system to bring Zoe back from the brink, that has been in place since they were children.  But it isn't working anymore, and when Zoe goes off the rails, Hannah feels like she has no choice but to follow her.  She still thinks that she can save Zoe from herself, the malfunction of her own body chemistry.  Hannah has spent her life trying to fix everyone and everything around her.  She allows herself to be the "other" woman for the boy she likes because she can't speak up, allows her parents to treat her like dirt and steal from her, and lets Zoe have all the adventures for her.  This is a story about two best friends, who are all each other has in the world, but it still isn't enough.  Hannah and Zoe love one another, but nothing Hannah does can shut out the voices, because Zoe has given up.  She is locked in her own mind and her despair with her shitty life, and can't make herself come out of it - she doesn't want to.  I won't tell you how it ends, suffice it to say that it's very bittersweet and not the traditional happily ever after.  I had problems with the ending, because it didn't flow with the rest of the book and felt somewhat contrived.  It had a bit of the "look, these are the dangers of mental illness."  There is some humor in this book and I love the sarcastic repartee between the girls throughout the book.  But Zoe's actions, funny to her but soon enough not to Hannah, become more uneasy to watch as the book moves on - less and less humor to be found.  All in all, and great portrait of best friends, the sacrifices we make for love (not necessarily the romantic kind) and the harsh realities of mental illness.  But all of it is done with that quirky, slightly ethereal Wendy Wunder edge.  I highly recommend it.

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

**I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book's expected publication date is April 10th, 2014.*

Your Kiss Just Might Kill Me

Published: October 1st, 2012
Who I Kissed
By: Janet Gurtler
Sourcebooks Fire
ISBN-13: 9781402270543

Samantha is new at school and just recently joined the swim team. She’s been flirting with one of her teammates, Zee, who invites her to a party and just as quickly dumps her for another girl. Hurt, but pretending not to care, she turns to his best friend, Alex, and gives him a kiss. And he dies—right in her arms. Alex was allergic to peanuts, and Samantha had eaten a peanut butter sandwich right before the party. She didn’t know. Overnight, Samantha turns into the school pariah and a media sensation explodes. Consumed with guilt, abandoned by her friends, and in jeopardy of losing her swimming scholarship, she will have to find the inner-strength to forgive herself for the tragedy.

Review

 

     Sam just moved to a new town and is starting to make friends, even if it is just with the kids on her swim team.  One of her teammates, Zee, invites her to a party and because she likes him Sam decides to go.  But when he spends the party hooking up with another girl, Sam decides to flirt with someone else.  When they kiss, Alex has a seizure - and dies right in her arms.  It turns out that he was allergic to peanuts and Sam ate a peanut butter sandwhich before the party.  She had no clue about his allergies, but now everyone blames her for Alex's death.  Sam retreats into herself, in agony over Alex's death thinking that she killed him.  She quits swimming and talking to anyone at school, and lets herself be used by a boy she thinks likes her.  Will Sam be able to find the strength to move on?  Especially when it may never have been her fault at all.  I spent the majority of the book feeling really bad for Sam.  It wasn't her fault that she didn't know about Alex's allergy.  She was just a girl who kissed a guy at a party.  How many of us have done that without knowing that sort of thing about the person?  Sam has a really supportive Dad and her Aunt is awesome.  I liked the depth of her issues of not knowing what really happened with her Mom - the fact that it took this long for them to tell her that her Mom was bi-polar is sort of pathetic.  I couldn't understand what she saw in Zee though.  I thought he treated her like crap even before what happened with Alex, and then after that he was a total asshole to Sam.  I could understand the grief of Alex's family and thought the author handled that really well.  My major anger was that Sam went through all of this, when at the end of the book you find out that it wasn't really her fault (and two of the teens blaming her knew that all along).  Overall a really thought-provoking read that keeps you guessing the entire time.  I recommend it for fans of Sarah Dessen, Susane Colasanti, and Jennifer E. Smith.

 

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

 

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

3...2...1, I'm On My Way

Published: August 14th, 2012

Counting Backwards

By: Laura Lascarso

Atheneum Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13: 9781442406902

Three weeks ago I tried to run away from home. Now all I want is to go back.

When troubled Taylor Truwell is caught with a stolen car and lands in court for resisting arrest, her father convinces the judge of an alternative to punishment: treatment in a juvenile psychiatric correctional facility. Sunny Meadows is anything but the easy way out, and Taylor has to fight hard just to hold on to her sanity as she battles her parents, her therapist, and vicious fellow patients. But even as Taylor struggles to hold on to her stubborn former self, she finds herself relenting as she lets in two unlikely friends-Margo, a former child star and arsonist, and AJ, a mysterious boy who doesn’t speak. In this striking debut, Laura Lascarso weaves together a powerful story of anger and self-destruction, hope and love.

Review

   Taylor Truwell's home life sucked a lot.  With an alcoholic Mom who needs a parent to care for her (not the other way around like it should be), an absent and cold Father she has no reason to stick around.  So she steals a car and tries to run away.  But when she's caught the Judge throws her into Sunny Meadows, a juvenile psychiatric hospital, per her Dad's recommendation.  Angry, scared and seriously lost Taylor is now being forced to take a good long look at her life and why things are going so badly.  Is it really all her parents' fault or is Taylor somewhat to blame too?  Also, can she do things the right way this time and heal, even if it's easier to just run away?  I liked this book a lot.  I felt like I could really identify with Taylor, because even though my Dad wasn't as hardcore of an alcoholic as her Mom, it's still such a hard situation when you're growing up.  All of the broken promises, fighting and unpredictability really wear on your mental state after a while.  I appreciated how angry and seriously panicked she was, but sometimes her behavior made me want to shake some sense into her!  Seriously, stealing a car and running away was the only way to get out?  I think there were some other things she could have tried first!  My favorite character was probably Margo, who is a former child star and arsonist who is in Sunny Meadows due to a nervous breakdown.  But unlike Taylor we meet her when she's already almost completely healed and ready to re-enter the real world.  She is Taylor's mentor and really makes an effort to get her involved with life again and to take getting better seriously.  AJ intrigued me, at first because of his silence and then because of his absolute ability to do the right thing even when it hurt him to (like when Taylor tried to steal the car from Auto Shop and run away again).  The friendship that blooms between them is very realistic and is not easy, but definitely worth it.  I loved the ending for it's realism and it's burst of hope.  I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Laurie Halse Anderson and Ellen Hopkins (although it's A LOT cleaner than an Ellen Hopkins book, Yo!).  

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book became available for purchase on August 14th, 2012.*

I Will Survive On My Own, Thankyouverymuch

Published:  August 2nd, 2012

Survive

By: Alex Morel

Razorbill

ISBN-13: 9781595145109

Hatchet meets Lost in this modern-day adventure tale of one girl's reawakening

Jane is on a plane on her way home to Montclair, New Jersey, from a mental hospital. She is about to kill herself. Just before she can swallow a lethal dose of pills, the plane hits turbulence and everything goes black. Jane wakes up amidst piles of wreckage and charred bodies on a snowy mountaintop. There is only one other survivor: a boy named Paul, who inspires Jane to want to fight for her life for the first time.

Jane and Paul scale icy slopes and huddle together for warmth at night, forging an intense emotional bond. But the wilderness is a vast and lethal force, and only one of them will survive.

Review

   Jane comes from a really dysfunctional family - both her Grandma and her Dad killed themselves because of mental illness.  Now Jane has attempted at least twice, so she's been packed off to the hospital where she has to convince the Doctors that she is well enough to go home again.  But Jane is just playing along, so that once she's out of there she manage to actually kill herself without any interference.  On the plane ride home for Christmas, Jane's in the bathroom with her pills getting ready when turbulence knocks her out.  Upon waking up Jane figures out that the plane has crashed and she and the guy next to her, Paul, were the only two that survived.  Now it's up to them to figure out a way to survive until the rescue crews can find them.  In the meantime will Jane figure out that she never really wanted to die and fight for her life for the first time ever?   I went into this book thinking that it was a winner for sure.  A survivalist fiction story, with a heroine who starts out like Charlie in LOST and ends up wanting to live?  If done right, it could have been phenomenal.  It was very sub-par in the way it turned out.  I was majorly disappointed that Jane wasn't really depressed and only treated suicide like a freaking family tradition.  That was very poorly done.  How can you sympathize as a reader with someone whose thought process is that ridiculously stupid???  Then there was the romance with Paul.  It got on my nerves that they barely knew each other, they were both pretty messed up (not to mention he was old enough that she was jailbait) and they ended up falling in 'love' and sleeping together.   Then one of them DIES.  What the hell?!!  The survivalist parts were few and far between compared to the boring build-up and this novel just didn't compare to the expectations that I had built up for it in my mind.  Not one I would recommend for fans of more hardcore books like the Hatchet series, or My Side of the Mountain (which I never considered hardcore per se before reading this piece of trash).  This is a romance masquerading as a survival story.  If you like that sort of thing, have at it by all means.  If not, avoid it like the plague.

VERDICT:  1.5/5  Stars

*  I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review.   This book became available for purchase on August 2nd, 2012.*

Keep It Down Now, Voices Carry

Expected Publication: July 17th, 2012

The Unquiet

By: Jeannine Garsee

Bloomsbury USA

ISBN-13: 9781599907239

Sixteen-year-old Rinn Jacobs has secrets: One, she’s bipolar. Two, she killed her grandmother. 

After a suicide attempt, and now her parents' separation, Rinn and her mom move from California to the rural Ohio town where her mother grew up. Back on her medications and hoping to stay well, Rinn settles into her new home, undaunted by the fact that the previous owner hanged herself in Rinn's bedroom. At school, her classmates believe the school pool is haunted by Annaliese, a girl who drowned there. But when a reckless séance goes awry, and terrible things start happening to her new friends—yet not to her—Rinn is determined to find out why she can’t be "touched" by Annaliese...or if Annaliese even exists. 

With the help of Nate Brenner, the hunky “farmer boy” she’s rapidly falling for, Rinn devises a dangerous plan to uncover the truth. Soon reality and fantasy meld into one, till Rinn finds it nearly impossible to tell the difference. When a malevolent force threatens the lives of everyone she cares about--not to mention her own--she can't help wondering: who should she really be afraid of?

Annaliese? Or herself?

Review

   Corinne 'Rinn' Jacobs has had a difficult life.  She's hoping to leave the past behind after her parents separate and she moves to the town where her Mom grew up, in backwoods Ohio.  After having a bipolar episode that inadvertently resulted in the death of her beloved Grandmother, Rinn is determined to stay on her medication and not give in paranoia due to the creepy rumors floating around town about ghosts in the school...and her new house.  Rinn makes a lot of popular friends and catches the attention of the cute, boy next door Nate Brenner.  Then, at the Homecoming dance, she participates in a seance at the school pool to draw out the ghost of a girl named Annaliese who drowned there.  It turns out not to be quite so harmless when each of the kids who were in the seance are targeted one by one, some malevolent force trying to do away with them.  Rinn is untouchable for some reason and she's determined to find out why and to know with certainty whether Annaliese is real or not.   Enlisting Nate's help, Rinn is on a mission to save herself and her friends, even if it means facing what she fears the most - herself.  Will she be the next to die or can Rinn finally be strong enough to save herself?  This was an intriguing book.  I normally stay away from the creepy, ghost-story YA books because they never turn out as good as they sound.  I liked Rinn's blunt, 'take-me-as-I-am' attitude because it's not necessarily the norm in YA books nowadays.  Most authors seem to favor the shrinking violet heroines for their novels.  I found myself drawn in to the mystery of Annaliese's existence, why she was haunting the school, and whether or not she was a figment of Rinn's imagination after all was said and done.  I liked the side characters, Meg and Tasha especially even though they met tragic endings.  I thought that Annaliese's cause of death was kind of cliched - at least the involvement the other people who were there was to a very large extent.  Nate made a good romantic interest for a book that wasn't focused on the romance.  It was largely about the mystery and his involvement reflected that.  I was reminded of Lois Duncan's style of writing and I was thoroughly creeped out so many times while reading this.  It is highly recommended for YA fans who enjoy horror, mystery and ghost stories.  Just don't read in a dark room with a creepy closet like I did! :)

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is July 17th, 2012.*