Hard Life, Good Read

Tyrell by Coe Booth
New York : PUSH, c2007.
310 p. ; 18 cm. 

I've been planning to read this book for years.  This year there was an uptick in demand for all of Coe Booth's books - Tyrell, Kendra, and Bronxwood - so it seemed like a good time to take this novel home and read it.  I was not disappointed.

Tyrell is a tough book - there is a lot of profanity, drug use, fights, sexual situations and overall gritty scenes throughout the novel, but it all feels very necessary to the power of this novel. The hero, fifteen year old Tyrell, has to figure out how to make his way in a world where his father is in prison, his mother is completely immature, selfish, and incompetent and many of his role models are sexist, aggressive, law-breaking young men.  He wants to do right by his family (especially his young brother), his friends, his girl friend, and his conscience.  Tyrell is smart, friendly, and great with DJing, something he learned from his father. But with his father in jail, his mother worthless as a parent, he has to figure out how to get himself and his family out of the filthy temporary hotel that they are stuck in after losing their apartment.

The thing I loved about Tyrell, is that all the characters are complex. Characters has their strengths and some serious weaknesses.  The main character, Tryell, can be heroic, but he can also be a liar, a macho hypocrite, and aggressive.  But he wants to make something of himself, and has a strong ethical code of honor that he reflects on even when he falls short.  Booth's skill is creating interesting, vivid characters who reflect the wide range of human strengths and weaknesses as they navigate the distressing and profoundly unfair world of inner city poverty.

It's too bad that a novel like this could not be taught in a classroom curriculum (there's just too much raw language and situations) because there are so many ethical and moral dilemmas that come up throughout the novel - and the novel is popular with young men and women.  It may not be suitable for the classroom, but it is a book that many young people, including reluctant readers are bound to embrace.

Abduction is So Romantic, or Is It?

Stolen by Lucy Christopher
New York : Chicken House, [2013], c2010.
299 p. ; 21 cm. 

This 2011 Printz Honor book started out strong for me - a teenager meets a slightly older, attractive guy in a Bangkok airport, flirts with him, gets drugged, hustled off, and drugged some more, finally waking up his captive in a totally isolated homestead in the barren Australian outback.

I liked the beginning of Stolen, as the victim, Gemma, terrified that her abductor is eventually going to assault and murder her, begins assessing her odds of resisting, escaping, etc., and tries to deal with the extreme loneliness and fear that gnaws at her.  In addition to being young and vulnerable, she is thousands of miles away from family and friends and surroundings of her hometown of London, and in an intensely isolated and unforgiving environment.

For me the weakness of this novel is that it wants to be both a thriller/survival tale and also a love story - as the victim comes to deeply care for and admire her captor.  I just don't think the transition works.  The shift in the main character's attitude toward her kidnapper is fairly abrupt.  Around about 2/3s of the way through the book - right after her keeper saves her from dying of exposure in the desert sun during an attempted escape, she suddenly starts being easy with him.  Waking him from a wildly screaming dream he's having about being taken himself as a child into foster care - Gemma suddenly starts chatting with him about the stars, and is entranced with his glorious painting project that fills one of the outbuildings he has constructed.  The novel then rapidly unwinds and concludes with an ending that has Gemma getting back to her family ( I don't want to give too much away).

I couldn't help thinking how it would have been fascinating if this were actually two novels.  One, a story of survival with an abductor who Gemma has to figure out in order to outwit and outsmart - and maybe doesn't triumph.  I picture the other novel being a romance between a Gemmalike character and a quirky, artistic, iron-willed man who she runs away with - only to find herself increasingly cut off and isolated, yet also coming to admire and love his wild determination... Instead, I felt a bit like I was reading a Harlequinesque seduction fantasy where the handsome, misunderstood, dark stranger really does sweep the heroine off her feet (and into a trunk and into a rustic prison in the outback...oooh, soooo romantic - not.)

Clearly I'm in the minority in not thinking this was an absolutely fantastic novel - after all it was a Printz honor book, and a short glance at reviews on Goodreads will reveal how well-loved Stolen is (including this rave review by YA author, Maggie Stiefvater

Geeky Greatness

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
New York : Broadway Books, c2011.
374 p. ; 21 cm.

This is a great book, one that should appeal to a wide variety of readers.  I'm not a videogamer, but I loved how Cline creates a thrilling, realistic sci-fi adventure story that seamlessly weaves videogaming and videogaming allusions into the text and texture of his novel. Ready Player One is a dystopian adventure, a love story, a paen to geekdom, an homage to 80s pop culture, and frankly a fun and smartly plotted novel.  Not bad!

I found the novel a pleasure to read. It wrestles with the evils of corporatism, the alienation of virtual reality, the pleasures of camaraderie and romance, and the basic human struggle between good and evil.  There is just enough real violence (not much) in the book to keep the reader on edge, and a plot that moves smartly along.  Even for non-geeks, the book has many moments of recognition where the reader thinks, "Ah ha, I know what ______________ he's talking about!" (Fill in the blank with book, movie, videogame, TV show or song depending on the situation.

Cline somehow manages to convey the reality on the online experience, while always the maintaining the more final reality of the actual world - while at times having them almost (almost, but not quite) dreamily/nightmarishly blur closely together.

I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for an unusual, creative, and thrilling read.