Young Adult – Page 57 – My Good Reads

‘Dead Silent’ – Sharon Jones

The second in the series focusing on Poppy Sinclair, a teenage detective, but this worked for me as a stand-alone book.

Not having read the first in the series I don’t know if that offers us a little more background to Poppy and her situation – I imagine so. If that is the case, I imagine I would be more invested in what happens to her in this adventure.

Poppy thinks she’s heading off to Cambridge to see her father, and to support her boyfriend while he attends an interview. Stumbling across her father crouched over a dead body the morning after her arrival means her plans go somewhat awry. Poppy decides to investigate the murder – and the rapid succession of bodies that seem to follow hot on its heels – but has to deal with the possibility that her father might be involved.

There’s a lot of background information about Cambridge woven in, and our focus is on a rather stereotypical secret society and its members. The stock ‘privileged elite’ characters who are linked to the society are killed in increasingly gruesome ways, and it’s obvious that Poppy is in danger as the killer becomes more unhinged.

Throughout the reading of this I felt rather detached from the experience. I wasn’t encouraged to particularly feel anything for those that were murdered, and the climax seemed like an exaggerated dream scene. I’m sure there will be readers that will love this; I can see the good bits, but it left me rather unmoved.

‘The Darkest Lie’ – Pintip Dunn

Six months prior to the opening of this story we are told that CeCe’s mother committed suicide after being accused of having sex with a student. CeCe has had to live with the taunts from the boy’s friends – and other students – ever since. She and her mother used to be close, and the betrayal CeCe feels as she and her father live with the fallout is evident.

This could have been a very different story; thankfully, the focus is not on what we’re told happened, but CeCe’s conviction that she trusts her mother would never have done such a thing. We follow CeCe as she tries to work out just who has secrets to hide, and just how her mother was involved.

Without revealing the intricacies of the plot, this quickly develops into a bit of a mud-slinging contest – any number of characters could have more to do with it than we realise. Eventually, something sticks but it’s always a good idea to listen to gut instinct at times.

This started out as quite an interesting idea. I admired the strength of character that CeCe showed, and it considered some difficult topics. Unfortunately, I couldn’t shake the feeling I had from the start, and all the attempts to lead us away from this felt like the grip on credibility was being heavily stretched at times.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

‘All The Bright Places’ – Jennifer Niven

Published in 2015, ‘All The Bright Places’ strikes me as one of those books that, once found, will be held dear in the hearts of its readers.

Please don’t be under any illusions; this is a book that deals with raw emotions and the focus on mental health/bereavement may be quite challenging for some. However, I think this is an important book as many teenagers and young adults will live through such events. How can they ever hope to navigate their way through these emotions and experiences if they are sheltered from them?

When we meet Violet Markey she is living with the fact that she survived the crash that killed her sister. She feels guilty. This goes some way to explaining why, when we first meet her, she is sitting at the top of her school’s bell tower trying to find the courage to get down. Her rescuer is Theodore Finch, a boy reviled by many of his classmates simply because he doesn’t conform to their label. Thus begins a beautiful friendship.

This book makes no secret of the fact that Finch and Violet are struggling to live with some pretty nasty demons. Yet, together, they seem to lift one another.
Though you sense where this ends, I was in no way prepared for the emotional impact of the story. Niven does not shy away from the details that we may prefer not to know.

This is fascinating to read. I found it hard as an adult to sit back and watch these fragile teenagers dealing with what was thrown at them. The anger I felt towards Finch’s family took me by surprise. As a young adult I think I would have loved this book; as an adult I’m trying to encourage my own teenager to read it and hoping the film will be released soon.

‘Exit, Pursued By A Bear’ – E.K. Johnston

Hermione Winters is co-captain of her cheerleading squad, along with her best friend Polly. Just like the rest of the team Hermione has given everything for her sport. Determined to go out on a high, the team attend what will be – for some – their final Cheer camp.

The first part of the book focuses on establishing the key characters within Hermione’s team and her relationship with them. It ends with the party to celebrate the end of camp. All we are told is Hermione remembers getting a drink, then she is taken outside and everything goes black.

With this title, the interest in staging is evident. I loved the fact that we are given regular Shakespearean quotes pertinent to the content. The structuring of the novel felt, at times, like a script for a performance.

There’s no spoilers in me telling you that Hermione is raped. We’re given very few details about the attack. This is more focused on the impact such an event can have on a person and their relationships, and how to come to terms with events about which you may have no recall.

Ultimately, this is a sensitive subject that many may shy away from. However, I feel this is an important book for people to consider reading although the focus on cheerleading might be off-putting.

‘The Smell of Other People’s Houses’ – Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

This debut novel focuses on the stories of four teenagers living in Alaska in the 1970’s. Apparently, it began life as a series of short stories and there is still something of that feel to it.

The novel is short, which left me feeling that parts of the story that I was really interested in knowing more about were somewhat glossed over. They were still interesting, but there just didn’t seem to be enough to make me really feel much of a connection with the characters.

We are given the stories of four quite different characters, their link being the place they live. We have Ruth, a young girl living with her grandmother. After her only sexual experience she ends up pregnant and is shipped off to an abbey to allow the nuns to have her baby adopted. We have Dora, who is living with a friend to escape the abuse she experiences at home. There is also Alyce, a dancer who knows she will have to escape her home-town to fulfil her dreams. Lastly, there is Hank – the older brother who has taken on the responsibility of his younger siblings after their father dies.

The issues touched upon in the novel are many, and potentially harrowing, but they are somewhat superficially raised and this makes it a curious novel to write about. I liked the fact that the stories connected, though some of the links did seem unlikely. I did not like the way in which the world surrounding the teenagers was described. It comes across as bleak and unpleasant, with many shortcomings, yet the only way anybody seems to escape it is by dying. I’m not sure what kind of message that sends, but it really does not make sense to me.

This was a book that I really wanted to like. It wasn’t a bad read, but it just left me feeling a little colder than I was expecting.

‘Pushing the Limits’ – Katie McGarry

Part of a series of novels, each telling the story of a different couple of characters. This, the first in the series, focuses on Noah and Echo.

Both Echo and Noah have had to contend with more trauma than anyone should have to experience in a lifetime,never mind before you finish school! They are damaged characters, but there is an inner strength to each of them that is really beautiful to see.

Noah’s parents died in a fire. His younger brothers are with a couple who want to adopt them. All Noah wants is the chance to be a family again.

Echo’s brother died on active service. She was attacked by her mother, but remembers nothing. All she wants is to sleep without being disturbed by nightmares, and to regain her memories without losing her mind.

This book was crammed with issues, some of which were better handled than others. The relationship between the main characters is at the heart of the novel. It’s tempestuous, but oddly sweet.

Only by testing ourselves at times can we really develop. Both characters push their limits…hard to read, but powerful.

’13 Minutes’ – Sarah Pinborough

Sarah Pinborough is a new author to me, and on the basis of my response to this I think I will have to try and get my hands on some of her other novels. Quickly!

’13 Minutes’ starts with an arresting image of a teenage girl being dragged, unconscious, from the water. Despite being technically dead for thirteen minutes, Natasha survives. We then cut immediately to a number of different perspectives which alert us to the fact that there is more to Natasha’s accident than we at first thought.

Natasha is reminiscent of Regina in ‘Mean Girls’ or Alison in ‘Pretty Little Liars’. She is the girl who tells her small circle of friends what is in and what is not. Everyone wants to be her. Yet she is not liked, and under the surface she is not quite what everyone thinks she is.

Once Natasha has been rescued we follow a fairly small circle of characters as the police, and Natasha’s ex-best-friend Becca, try to work out who is responsible for what happened to Natasha. Pinborough gives us a range of perspectives, and the undercurrent of menace is crackling from the start. We think we’ve got it, and then a new detail is revealed and we’re back to the drawing board.

I really did not want to put this down once I’d started. This is a tale set in a murky world of half-truths and deception, that sucks you in. Fairly late on there is a startling revelation which, for me, felt a little disappointing. It worked, but I felt there should have been more to it. There was! Swiftly following on from this was another development that took this book from the simply good to the absolutely amazing.

A masterful piece of storytelling.

‘Georgia, Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit’ – Jaye Robin Brown

Given the shooting that has just happened in Orlando, the need for this book is great. I can certainly see how it could act as support for any teenager exploring a crisis of faith that occurs as a result of their sexuality.

Jo, as a confident and proudly out lesbian, is put in a really difficult situation. At the start of her senior year she moves with her father and new step-mother to a less tolerant area. Her father, a preacher who says he accepts his daughter, then asks Jo to hide who she really is to help them integrate into the community.
The irony that Jo then befriends a boy with two mums, and the beautiful Mary who is coming to terms with her own sexuality, will not be lost on readers.

Suddenly Jo is struggling with her own crisis of faith. Should she show love and respect for her father and his new wife, or should she be true to herself?
The question of faith and what it means to us is at the heart of the novel. There are some interesting questions raised, and we see a range of views considered.

Ultimately, this has a feel-good factor in the way key issues are resolved though I did find it hard to accept some of the things asked of individuals and the scenarios that lead us to these results. An absorbing read, which I will have no hesitation to recommend.

Thanks to the publishers, via edelweiss, for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

‘The Pain Eater’ – Beth Goobie

She hadn’t told anyone. Not a single soul. Not one word about that night and what had been done to her had ever passed Maddy Malone’s lips. She’d thought about it at first – had been desperate, even frantic, to tell. But then had come the shame, and the intimidation from the boys who raped her – and the one who held her down.

Now it’s the beginning of a new school year and Maddy is hoping that she can continue to hide, making herself as quiet and small as possible. She is consumed with keeping the memories at bay, forcing them down through small cuts and the burn from the end of a cigarette. But when her English class is given the assignment of writing a collaborative novel about a fifteen-year-old girl, The Pain Eater, fact and fiction begin to meet up. When the boys spread rumors about Maddy, she realizes that continuing to hide the truth will only give them more control, and she slowly gains the courage to confront them.

From its opening Prologue, where we are told about the rape of fourteen-year-old Maddy, this is a powerful read.

The novel actually focuses on the events of a year after the attack. Maddy has told no-one of what happened to her, and she is used to keeping her head down and being invisible. Over the year since the attack, Maddy has worked out the identities of her attackers and things come to a head when she finds herself in English class with two of them.

The class are set an intriguing task-a collaborative story. And so begins a fascinating read.

As much about the creative act of writing as it is about Maddy’s brave decision to finally speak about what happened, this novel is powerful. Like a number of books on this topic, I feel this should be a must-read for teenagers.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This is one book I’ll be urging my students to consider when it’s published! As of September 2nd, Amazon.co.uk are indicating that the Kindle version of the novel will be available from 13th September 2016 while the paperback version is available for pre-order (scheduled release March 2017).

________________________________________________________________

Thank you for you review of The Pain Eater by Beth Goobie. I spoke with Beth and I know she was really happy to see your review of her new book, and we are too here at Second Story. It’s great to see a reviewer/blogger who has a wide interest and gives a really considered and thoughtful review of each book.

Beth wanted me to clarify the publication date of the book with you. The book is being released in September in Canada and then in March in the USA. Our books are not being distributed in the UK directly at the moment, but Amazon does seem to make it available so I hope that UK readers can purchase it, or they can also access the ebook versions.

Thank you so much for bringing attention to our book!

Emma Rodgers

Marketing & Promotions Manager

Second Story Press

‘Flat-Out Love’ – Jessica Park

‘Flat-Out Love’ is a curious read, but one to persevere with.

We first meet Julie when she’s heading to college in Boston. Her accommodation doesn’t work out, so an old college friend of her mother steps in and saves the day. Julie joins this eccentric and highly dysfunctional family, and we get to see her learn more about them as she goes through her studies.

This eighteen year old is quick to take thirteen year old Celeste under her wing, but it is her relationship with Finn – the eldest son – that initially draws us in. Though we’re told Finn is travelling, Julie friends him on Facebook and finds herself drawn to this boy she’s never met.

There are some wonderful moments during this story. It’s witty but also upsetting. Julie seemed a little too keen to ‘fix’ everything, which I wasn’t totally convinced by, but I found myself drawn to her as she learns more about the relationships between those around her.

It is only fairly late on that we start to get clues about the, quite frankly, astonishing revelation this warm but broken family unit have to make. Julie’s initial response had me gulping (and, yes, feeling more than a little teary) but by the end I was quite won over.