Category: Contemporary

‘The Regulars’ – Georgia Clark

What would you sacrifice to be pretty? Friends, your job…your life? That’s the decision that three twenty-somethings have to make in this novel.

I fell for the cover, totally. So, like most of the characters in this book I am superficial and rather focused on first impressions.

The premise behind this book was fascinating. Three friends in their early twenties, suffering the usual angst and body issues, are given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. An old friend passes on something called Pretty. Curiosity gets the better of them and they take it. After some Inbetweeners-style bathroom reaction to it, the girls learn it has changed them.

Glossy, beautiful and like Photoshopped versions of themselves, the three girls get to play. They see just how good life can be for the beautiful people…but their angst and issues remain, and life on the other side isn’t actually much greener.

This reminded me a little of Limitless, but focusing on three characters meant things were always rather superficial. The scenarios the girls get into were, possibly, meant to be humorous but I found them rather depressing. If only they’d had the chance to do something better.

Ultimately, the girls come to realise there’s positives to who they really are. We leave the book none the wiser about what the drug was, how it worked or whether others were on it. Do we need to know? Probably not, but the message that beauty is only skin deep and we should learn to love who we are is rather obvious.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this, but I feel it could have been so much better.

‘All American Boys’ – Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

In this Coretta Scott King Honor Award–winning novel, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension.

A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter…There were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before.

Having not long finished The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, this popped up on my recommendations list.

Another timely call to not sit back and passively accept injustice, as that’s just as bad as carrying out the act in the first instance. This is the story of Rashad, a young black student, who is beaten up by a cop who thinks he was stealing. It’s also the story of Quinn, a young white student, who witnesses this attack and has to decide what to do about it.

Sadly, the very fact that this story has been written – and the ongoing news stories – show this is not an issue that has been resolved. Race and attitudes towards race, from both sides, are complex.

If I’m being honest, though this was an engaging story and one that certainly encourages people to think about where they’d stand, it didn’t quite work for me as I hoped it would. The story was split between two viewpoints but it meant certain ideas/concepts were rather glossed over. There was little attempt to consider the role of the cop (apart from a rather similar anecdote from Rashad’s father) and I would have liked to gain more of a view of the media coverage.

Still, it’s an important story and could be a way in for people to consider their attitudes towards race and police brutality. Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to do this?

‘All in Pieces’ – Suzanne Young

A story that will pluck at your heart-strings, even as you realise you’re being shamelessly manipulated.

I’ve only read The Program by Suzanne Young, and this strikes me as something of a departure in subject matter – though the need to get you rooting for a character who’s struggling is there in spades.

In this story we focus on Savannah, a young girl dealing with things anybody would find tough. Her younger brother – who she has a strong bond with – has some kind of developmental disorder which causes untold difficulties. Her mother has left them, and her father blames Evan for this. He has descended into alcoholism, neglecting his children and basically acting like someone who has given up. It is up to Savannah to deal with the day-to-day things, and to try to prevent her younger brother being sent to live with their aunt.

The background to the story would be tough for anyone, but Savannah has been sent to a special school for troubled teens after stabbing her boyfriend with a pencil when he mocked Evan. Here she’s judged on her previous actions and nobody is prepared to look beyond the label she is given.

Savannah and her friends are the kind of kids who are labelled as trouble, and who slip through the cracks because nobody cares. Yet they all exhibit amazing qualities, and a resilience that is admirable. Of course, it also means that when things reach their inevitable conclusion we feel it is all desperately unfair and are hoping for someone to come in and save the day. If only…

After finishing this I did feel as if I was in pieces. This was brutal. Suzanne Young introduces us to these messed-up teenagers, makes us see beyond the judgement…and then throws everything at them. No matter what they have to endure they get up, and keep going.

This made me so sad in many ways. The adults, and some of the kids, were awful. Then you get a good one.

I was blinking away tears by the end. Very emotional.

‘The Girl’s Guide to Summer’ – Sarah Mlynowski

Sydney Aarons is fed up of dealing with her agoraphobic mother and younger sister. She is putting her life on hold as she looks after those around her. Sounds like the plot of a novel about a much older character than our teenage narrator, but it’s the perfect set-up for doing something drastic.

When she gets the chance to join her best friend, Leela, on a four week backpacking holiday, Sydney takes it. As we follow them on their travels we watch friendships challenged, new friendships forged and some love interest developing.

This was a quick and fairly light-hearted read. I wanted the girls to do more with their experience, and I did find the style overly formulaic by the end. The girls arrive in their new destination, find a room, find food/drink and then find people to talk to/flirt with. There might be the odd reference to a visit to a place of significance. But that is it. Repeated…over and over and over again.

It was entertaining but not particularly memorable. One of those perfect beach reads for teens who may be dreaming of having their own adventure and holiday fling. I guess if you were stuck in a tent in a soggy field with squabbling siblings (as much of my holidays were) then this would sound like the ultimate wish-fulfilment!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my review.

‘The Names They Gave Us’ – Emery Lord

This was one of those books that I was in two minds about before reading. I’d loved ‘When We Collided’ but I wasn’t sure whether this would be little earnest for me.

Seventeen year old Lucy is a fairly typical teenager. Her father is a pastor, so religion is a major part of her life; she has had a steady boyfriend for two years, but their religious beliefs mean they have chosen not to be physically intimate and she is close to her mother. However, when she learns that her mother’s cancer has returned Lucy’s perfect world is thrown into chaos.

Though Lucy has been a counsellor at their Christian camp for years, this summer her mother convinces her to take on the role at Daybreak – a camp for children experiencing trauma. Here Lucy makes friends, learns about herself and her beliefs and – rather obviously – develops her own sense of self.

The setting for this did bother me a little – but Lucy is quick to acknowledge her own potential to stereotype and she tackles head-on the qualms she has about her faith. I liked the way Lucy develops friendships with people that are focused on her as a person, rather than who she is or who she knows. As we watch the summer unfold we come to see the significance of the camp and people within it.

This was a genuinely moving read which, thankfully, doesn’t shy away from some pretty heavy issues. I did feel that everything was being thrown at Lucy (us) thick and fast by the end so I was less convinced by this part of it. However, Lord sends a really positive message with people dealing with things in the best way they can.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

‘Lobsters’ – Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison

‘Socially awkward’ is a fitting phrase for this…I couldn’t believe some of the stuff that was happening to Sam and Hannah and their friends.

Our groups of almost eighteen year olds are on the cusp of adulthood, and we watch them in their summer before heading off to university. We get the inevitable post-exam analysis; the drunken fumbles; the changing issues around friendships; a growing sense of needing to become independent and the highlights of summer-holiday and festival.

Throughout this I was laughing out loud at so many moments. I was also groaning, cringing and torn between being thankful I am long past that age and desperately wanting to return to that time, where anything seems possible.

I liked the characters of Hannah and Sam, and their somewhat disastrous attempts to get into any kind of romantic situation. Knowing the focus was on the love story I was holding out for a relatively hopeful ending – but I was really wondering just what else could get in their way.

The split in narrative really made this, and though this might not fit all teenagers there’s something that most will relate to. The dual perspective was used to maximum effect when we were focusing on the Hannah and Sam relationship – excellent stuff!

Can’t wait for Freshers…roll on August 2017…

‘The Last of August’ – Brittany Cavallaro

I’d thoroughly enjoyed the first in this series, and though this was fun it wasn’t quite as gripping. The focus of our story on this occasion is the disappearance of Holmes’s uncle Leander while he is investigating an undercover art-ring. Holmes and Watson travel to Berlin, with Holmes single-minded in her attempt to discover the whereabouts of her uncle and who is behind the strange goings-on at the Holmes estate.

Perhaps it was time to unleash the nemesis, but in this book Holmes is heavily reliant on August Moriarty. Though many believe him to be dead, he is alive and well – and very much needed as the numerous Moriarty family members that pop  up here are all connected to this forged artwork in some way.

Holmes plays a lot of cards close to her chest in this, and we are never quite sure what’s going on. There’s the merest hint that Holmes and Watson will get closer – but their ‘friendship’ is pretty toxic and messy. There’s a story here, but we’re not being told it yet. While it might have been therapeutic for them to develop their relationship, I think maintaining this distance actually makes them more intriguing.

All in all this is a story that develops the characters for us and sets us against a backdrop of a mystery – but never quite giving us what we’re expecting.

‘Orbiting Jupiter’ – Gary Schmidt

This story is told through the eyes of our young narrator, Jack, and focus on how he copes when his family get fourteen year old Joseph – a young father who has been in detention after attacking a teacher – come to live with them.

Joseph is the kind of boy that many are quite happy to regard as trouble. He is mercilessly bullied by a trio of boys in his new school, and many of the teachers are convinced that he is bringing down the better students. He is, in many ways, a boy more sinned against than sinning – we never get all the details (thankfully) but what we are told about his behaviour suggests strongly that he has been abused while in care and that he does not come from a supportive family background.

However, Jack’s family judge a person’s character on how their animals react to them. Joseph is able to calm down the family cow, so he’s okay. A rathe simple approach, but it allows Joseph to bloom. As he relaxes in this new environment, he starts to share some of the details of his past. Unsurprisingly, things are not as we were led to believe at the start.

Just when there was a hint of something positive happening, we’re sideswiped by a move so shocking I wasn’t sure I’d read it correctly. Abrupt, certainly, but it did get me emotionally.

This is a very quick read, and I think I’d have liked to have had details fleshed out a little more or spent a bit more time with these characters. However, I really did feel an awful lot of stuff was packed into these pages…perhaps I couldn’t have coped with more.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in advance.

‘Release’ – Patrick Ness

I don’t know if I dare confess to not knowing ‘Mrs Dalloway’, but I loved ‘Forever’ as a teenager and was in awe of a writer who could be so open and frank about discovering sex as Judy Blume was. This latest release by Patrick Ness may well be inspired by these books, but this was really a book of mixed responses for me.

The story focuses, in the main, on a day in the life of Adam Thorn. He is the younger son of an evangelical preacher, gay but not able to share this with his family (though there are clues that they know this) and about to spend the night at a going-away party for his first love, Enzo. We follow Adam through his day – so mundane in many ways, but also packed with exquisite moments.

Alongside Adam’s story is this rather odd tale of the spirit of a recently deceased girl (murdered by her boyfriend) hell-bent on getting revenge. She is accompanied on her journey by a 7ft faun and, on occasion, people in the real world see her. I confess to not really being sure what was going on here. It felt like some kind of symbolic representation of Adam’s life but it did feel like it was getting in the way of the story I wanted to know more about.

I found myself frustrated at the start by Adam’s family – the chrysanthemum scene was symptomatic of their inability to talk together – but I thought there might be hope when Adam’s brother, Marty, reveals he has got a girl pregnant. Sadly, we follow Adam on his day and there’s always a sense of someone not quite getting it.

The scene with Adam’s sleazy boss, Wade, angered me. I felt rather sorry for Enzo, in spite of the hurtful way in which he behaved towards Adam. However, that moment when Adam realises what has been going on, and gets his release from this toxic relationship was to be applauded. The moment that choked me, where I really wasn’t sure I wanted to read on, was the moment when Adam finally confronts his father with the reality of his life. A rather unconventional approach to outing yourself, but when his dad turns round and says “You’ll never know how hard I have to work to love you” I thought my heart would break!

I can see some readers might be uncomfortable with the level of detail given to describing Adam’s sex-life. Yes, it’s graphic but not really much more than we might get from many writers describing a heterosexual relationship, and I certainly didn’t get the feeling it was gratuitous. What I do think is worth noting is the positivity shown in the relationship between Linus and Adam. There was a real tenderness to their interactions and an emotional intimacy that anyone should be honoured to share.

All in all this was a read that I found absorbing. In turns drawn to and repelled by Adam and his family, I felt Adam’s story was Ness at his best. The other parts were, sadly, detracting and I felt they were Ness trying too hard to be clever.

‘The Afterlife of Holly Chase’ – Cynthia Hand

There’s very few people that will not be familiar with the story of Scrooge and his shot at redemption. With untold students having to study ‘A Christmas Carol for GCSE I can see this being an interesting companion piece.

Our focus is on seventeen year old Holly Chase, a fashion-obsessed teenager who’s been struggling to come to terms with the death of her mother from cancer. She is, quite frankly, an unpleasant character: rude, self-obsessed, selfish, mean…you get the idea. In true Dickensian style she is visited one Christmas Eve by three spirits, keen to give her a chance to change. Holly ignores the warnings, and dies on Christmas Day.

Only she isn’t actually dead.

Holly is, instead, taken to work on Project Scrooge – a secretive set-up where once a year the crew attempt to save the life of one Scrooge (or the modern equivalent). For the last five years we are told Holly has been acting as the Ghost of Christmas Past. Her afterlife is pretty dull. She goes to work, has no friends and does little in her spare time. This year, though, things are different.

This year the target is, for the first time since Holly, a young boy. From the off we can see Holly has a lot more invested in Ethan’s case than others she’s worked on. Though things aren’t done conventionally here, we root for Holly as she tries to change someone’s future.

As the book progresses there’s hints that things are not quite as we were led to believe. However, it all ties together nicely.

This must be the only book I’ve read where I’m actually happy that the romance I was hoping for all along didn’t quite go to plan. When you read it, you’ll know why. This is not a straightforward retelling, but it was instantly recognisable. Aside from the modern setting and the easily identifiable characters, I loved the way Hand updates the source for a modern reader. And the geeky English teacher in me loved all the Dickens references and quotes.

What’s not to love?

Thank you to edelweiss and publishers Harper Teen for allowing me to read this in advance.