contemporary fiction

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

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THIS BOOK.  Holy cow, it’s been a while since I’ve torn through a book in one day, but I’ll Give You the Sun was impossible to put down.  Art, mystery, family, love, grief–this book is absolutely beautiful, both in the way that it is written and in what it covers.  I’m still stunned.  This book shook me up, made me lighter, and weighed me down.  It even made me start thinking in contradictory metaphors.

I was skeptical of Nelson’s setup–she alternates chapters between twins.  This is a common writing device, but Nelson adds a twist.  The chapters told by Noah are from his 13-year-old perspective, while the chapters told by Jude jump ahead three years to when they are 16.  I didn’t know how Nelson could keep the plot moving if we found out in Jude’s chapters everything that was going to happen to younger Noah.  But I was wrong!  This worked out so well!  The hints and foreshadowing only made me more curious.  On top of that, Noah and Jude keep an incredibly amount of secrets from each other, and this makes their individual chapters all the more interesting. Continue reading →

I Was Here by Gayle Forman

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WOW.  What a necessary book.  I feel like there is decent representation of depressed and suicidal teens in YA books, but there are not very many novels that deal with the affects of suicide on others.  Cody’s grief over losing her best friend Meg is palpable–the anger at her friend for killing herself, the blame she places on herself for not seeing it coming, and the slow hope of moving forward by finding her own strength.  I thought I Was Here did a wonderful job of honoring the mental illness and pain of those who commit suicide without ever glorifying or justifying the action.

There’s really not much to say about this book other than Read It.  It handles a difficult topic with delicacy, is full of memorable characters (and kittens!), and creates a vivid picture of a part of the country I’ve never experienced (rural Washington).  Most of all, it is a hopeful story.  It is about a girl who loses what she loves the most…and continues to live.  It is about the brave task of living one day at a time.  I adored it.  Continue reading →

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

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This is such a cute book!  I read YA books to clear my mind of heavier non-fiction words on faith or life.  But sometimes I need to go a step further and read middle grade stories of children discovering life and romance for the first adorable time.  It’s fluffy, poignant, and a fantastic mental palate cleanser.

For all that, though, Flipped is really a very clever book.  Alternating chapters reveal the same events from both Bryce’s and Juli’s perspectives.  When this is done well (as it is here), the story grows with repetition, adding depth to an otherwise linear plot.  Continue reading →

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

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Apparently, I’m really into unapologetically other mythical creatures.  I’m glad we’re trending away from nice vampires and friendly werewolves.  The fun of fantasy comes from the collision of two cultures that are truly dangerous to each other.  Black’s faeries are wild, passionate, and creepy.  Fairfold is a place of changling babies, drowned tourists, and missing persons.  Despite this, the humans are tentatively accepting of their faerie-surrouned world…until the sleeping prince wakes up and everything falls to pieces.

I love Black’s high-stakes world of debts repaid, female knights, and sibling support.  The Darkest Part of the Forest was entirely engrossing from page 1.  Hazel was a super cool protagonist whose eccentricities are fleshed out as the book progresses?  What makes a girl desperate to become a knight while kissing a bunch of boys on the side?  She’s not a Mary Sue character–she’s got reasons for her actions, and I loved seeing them explored.  Her brother Ben is also amazing.  I really enjoyed the gender swap dynamic wherein the older brother feels secondary to his younger, battle-ready sister.  Continue reading →

Althea & Oliver by Cristina Moracho

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I’m confused!  Some books give you what you want, and other books give you reality.  Often, when I’m reading the ones that give me what I want, a small part of my brain is grumbling about how unrealistic it is.  But then a book like Althea & Oliver comes along, and it’s just too realistic!  I want happy endings!  I want neatly tied up plots where everyone I love is exactly where I want them!  But….I do like the messiness.  I like the ending that stares into the future, letting the characters be confused, disappointed, and excited by what might happen to them off page.

I don’t know.  Continue reading →

The Vacationers by Emma Straub

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What a disarmingly enchanting book.  It takes real skill to introduce a cast of characters, all of which are varying levels of gross.  The Posts and their friends are fully-formed people, which means they have hidden secrets that made me think, “Ugh, people are the worst.”  By the end, these secrets are not explained away, nor are they really atoned for, and yet…and yet by the end I loved this dysfunctional family.  Maybe that’s the real beauty of the story, that we can hugely screw things up and still find solace in the people we love.  Continue reading →

The Beach by Alex Garland

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Whaaaaat?  The Beach is the adult Lord of the Flies, and it is no less engrossing (or weird). I haven’t seen the movie based on the book despite Leonardo DiCaprio’s beautiful face, so I got to experience the crazy with an unspoiled mind.

Garland’s book starts off innocently enough, tapping into the traveler’s desire to escape tourism and live a simple life.  When Richard and his new friends find the titular beach, they join a group that fishes, smokes weed, and swims in a protected lagoon that is almost impossible to reach.  Idyllic, right?  Continue reading →

Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A. S. King

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A. S. King is the literature equivalent of a mad scientist.  She puts together plots and themes that should never be mixed, but…VOILA.  A masterpiece!  Did I just mix metaphors and make her an artist?  Whatever!  She is a scientist, artist, author–everything and nothing.  Just like Glory.

It takes a special book to deal with the general doubts and fears of a teenager, plus the specific doubts and fears of a teenager who’s mother committed suicide, within the context of visions brought about by petrified bat-beer.  Yes, you read that correctly.  It’s super weird, but somehow it all works together brilliantly.  It almost doesn’t matter whether the bat-visions are true; the pictures Glory sees of the past and the future give her the courage to live in the present.

Can I say, though, how much I love that Glory’s visions of a hellish future of civil wars and nuclear explosions are the result of anti-feminists?  I might have gleefully clapped my hands when I realized King had written a post-apocalyptic novel to inspire readers to give women equal rights.  The visions were all-around spectacular; I was amazed at the detail and scope of people’s ancestors and descendents.

All this sounds strange, and it is.  But within this bizarre plot are some really poignant messages of grief, of learning to communicate and maybe move on.  There’s a wonderful depiction of a dying friendship, with all the frustrations and promises and confusion such a relationship entails.  And at the heart of it all, there’s Glory, a girl scared she’s doomed to die.  Ironically, it’s by seeing her death that she learns how to live.

Book Jacket 81b37cd4781fd48e525165ce7bd85f6f

Graduation is usually a time of limitless possibilities, but not for Glory.  She’s never stopped wondering whether her mother’s suicide will lead her to end her own life someday, as statistics would predict.  But everything changes after a transformative night when she gains the power to see anyone’s infinite past and future.  And what she sees ahead for humanity is terrifying.

Glory makes it her mission to record everything that’s coming, hoping her notes will somehow make a difference.  She may not see a future for herself, but she’ll do anything to make sure this one doesn’t come to pass.

With astonishing insight and arresting vision, Printz Honor author A. S. King tells the epic story of a girl coping with devastating loss at long last–a girl who has no idea that the future needs her, and that the present needs her even more.

Release Date:  October 2014

Want another opinion?  Check out reviews by The New York Times and The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shhh!

Poisoned Apples by Christine Heppermann

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Wow.  I never knew I needed a book that addressed the complexities of growing up female through the lens of poetry based on fairy tale tropes, but this book satisfied a deep part of me.  The topics are sometimes uncomfortably difficult, but then, so are stories of witches eating children.   The best way to advertise this amazing collection is to let it speak for itself–here is one of my favorite poems, “Blow Your House In.”

She used to be a house of bricks,
point guard on the JV team, walling out
defenders who could only huff and puff
and watch as the layups roll in.

She traded for a house of sticks,
kindling in Converse high-tops and a red Adidas tent.
At lunch she swirled a teeny spoon in yogurt
that never touched her lips and said
she’d decided to quit chasing a stupid ball.

Now she’s building herself out of straw
as light as the needle swimming in her bathroom scale.
The smaller the number, the closer to gold,
the tighter her face, afire with the zeal of a wolf
who has one house left to destroy.

Book Jacket poisoned-apples-cover

Once upon a time…you were a princess, or an orphan.  A wicked witch, fairy godmother, prom queen, valedictorian, team captain, Big Bad Wolf, Little Bo Peep.  But you are more than just a hero or a villain, cursed or charmed.  You are everything in between.  You are everything.

In fifty poems, Christine Heppermann places fairy tales side by side with the modern teenage girl.  Powerful and provocative, deadly funny and deadly serious, this collection is one to read, to share, to treasure, and to come back to again and again.

Release Date:  September 2014

Want another opinion?  Check out reviews by Teenreads and Elle.

The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

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It’s impossible to read Keegan’s book of short stories and essays without constantly thinking about the tragedy of her too-early death.  Mostly this is because the introduction to her book is essentially a well-written eulogy.  But it’s also because several of her essays deal with death or a hoped-for successful life come to naught.

Keegan’s real life tragedy adds a layer of meaning to her work, but the stories stand on their own.  She was a remarkable talent, and her short stories are poignant, funny, and incredibly real.  She was able to slip into the skins of varying protagonists of different ages and sexes.  I loved reading her work, and I so wish she had lived to write more.

Book Jacket 1397733525000-TheOppositeOfLoneliness-600

Marina Keegan’s star was on the rise when she graduated magna cum laude from Yale in May 2012.  She had a play that was to be produced at the New York International Fringe Festival and a job waiting for her at the New Yorker.  Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car crash.

As her family, friends and classmates, deep in grief, joined to create a memorial service for Marina, her unforgettable last essay for the Yale Daily News, “The Opposite of Loneliness,” went viral, receiving more than 1.4 million hits.  She had struck a chord.

Even though she was just twenty-two when she died, Marina left behind a rich, expansive trove of prose that, like her title essay, captures the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of her generation.  The Opposite of Loneliness is an assemblage of Marina’s essays and stories that, like The Last Lecture, articulates the universal struggle that all of us face as we figure out what we aspire to be and how we can harness our talents to make an impact on the world.

Release Date:  April 2014

Want another opinion?  Check out reviews at Love and Sparkles and Susan Coventry.