Tough and Tender

The Closest I've Come by Fred Aceves

New York, NY : HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2017]

310 p. ; 22 cm. 

I'm a sucker for a book with heart, and this novel had me pretty early on.  It's about a Latinx young man growing up poor in Tampa, Florida and struggling to find love, a way out of his impoverished neighborhood, and a way out of the restrictions of having to keep up a tough macho front.  He also is trying to survive a negligent alcoholic mother and her racist and abusive boyfriend who lives with and sponges off of them.

What are the things I especially liked about this book? I love that though Marcos, the main character, is smart and at times humorous, he is not constantly throwing out witty, hip comments and comebacks. In some YA books the protagonist feels like an attempt by the author to come up with a contemporary Holden Caulfield that doesn't ring true. In this novel, Marcos is so believable. He is also believable in his struggle to become a more authentic human being - we get glimpses of his true feelings through his inner thoughts and those feelings get expressed imperfectly (as they do with most people growing up).  I also love the romance (or desired romance) that forms a core of the novel.  It doesn't follow the conventional route in resolving itself and that is refreshing. I appreciated the portrayal of teachers in the book; they are not stereotyped as saviors or villains, but as people who have a tough job and can be really kind. The book also deals with race and cliques in ways that don't feel incredibly heavy handed or unrealistic.

I also love a book that bluntly reveals the struggles of being poor as just the matter of fact situation someone finds themselves in. Marcos just gets by with having to wear crummy shoes and just enough clean t-shirts to look good at school. One of his buddies - the academically most successful of the bunch - starts dealing drugs for an aunt in order to make more money - a decision that is treated realistically. Finally, I should mention that the book helpfully portrays the complicated situation a young person can find themselves  in when an adult in their household is physically and emotionally abusive.

Would I recommend The Closest I've Come? I definitely would. I think it would satisfy a lot of different kinds of readers.

Got Blood?

Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin

New York : Wednesday Books, 2020.

326 p. ; 22 cm. 

This novel calls up the Elizabethan & Jacobean revenge tragedy.  I had to chuckle in that while looking for references on revenge tragedies I found this in an article by Justin Cash in The Drama Teacher:   

Revenge tragedies typically consisted of one or more of the following:

• ghosts and the supernatural
• murder
• insanity/mad scenes
• a character seeking revenge against a strong(er) opponent for a real or imagined wrongdoing
• personifications of revenge / the supernatural
• a clear villain (although interestingly the character of Hamlet was a hero seeking revenge)
• onstage violence, often sensational
• blood-filled conclusions
• disguise
• corpses
• often isolated revenger(s)

Yep, Foul is Fair has most of that in spades! The novel is about Jade, a wealthy it-girl who is drugged and gang raped by wealthy/arrogant prep-boys after she and her "coven" of friends crash a party.  The assault is not graphically portrayed, but the victim recalls the words and brutality of the four assailants and their accomplices and promises murderous revenge. Let's just say she keeps her promise! 

This book got a starred review from Booklist which notes: "...this isn't a how-to-murder-your-classmates manual; it's a ferocious, frenzied reaction to a world that has, for too long, treated women as collateral damage in stories that have been deemed more important than theirs....The plot is not rooted in any sort of reality; it is a fever dream, a vicious fantasy, an allegory with bloody teeth." That gets it about right.  In my mind it gets to what is the strength and weakness of the novel.  

I liked a lot about the novel; it is a good escapist read, but Jade and her friends who assist with the bloody revenge plot are extremely unlikable souls themselves. There are no heroes in this tale, just a group of depraved characters who get to exact revenge on a set of even more depraved villains.  I also found some of the supernatural overtures a bit distracting (weird flocks of birds, sudden storms, visions of winged flying characters, unhinged stream of conscience, etc.). But some will love that overwrought drama, and if they do fair enough (of should I say foul enough!). 

If I mention the book to a student, I would definitely let them know it deals with some serious triggering issues - sexual assault, violence, and murder. But if they are looking for a bloody read, I'd suggest it. Oh, and it also strongly echoes Shakespeare's Macbeth, something that students who are reading the play might really enjoy.

  

X + U = SLAM

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
New York, NY : HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2018.   
361 p. ; 22 cm.

I'm not even going to pretend to be objective about this book.  After seeing and hearing Acevedo read at our local library last week, while I was about half way through this book, all I can say is "Yes, read this book and recommend it to students you know." 

She is a great performer and a strong writer, too.  When I handed a copy of this book to a student recently, I said, "Be sure and look her up on YouTube."

The book is a fine telling of Xiomara, a girl coming of age in contemporary Harlem, NYC.  She is a sensitive, but bold, young woman who is being raised by a very strict and very religious mother, and a somewhat distant and checked-out father - both who are immigrants from the Dominican Republic. She is also a twin of a brother she loves, and they both are struggling to become the adults they want to be - while under the restraints of their loving, but oppressive family.

Fortunately for Xiomara, her salvation is in nurturing her gift for poetry and spoken word performance.  Will it be enough to overcome the binds of family and religion?  Will she be able to find romantic love when her mother doesn't even want her talking to boys?  Can she help her brother as he struggles to own his gay identity?

Well, you'll have to read the book to find out.  There are unexpected plot twists and scenes of great emotion - and you won't be disappointed. I swear!

Almost Out of the Cage

A List of Cages by Robin Roe
Los Angeles : Hyperion, 2017.
310 p. ; 21 cm.

There are a lot of good things to say about A List of Cages.  It tells a good story - a likeable kid, Adam, who reconnects with, and befriends, a younger marginalized kid (Julian, who was briefly his foster brother) and eventually helps save him from the terrible cruelties of an uncle who adopted him. 

Roe unravels the story in chapters alternately told from one of the two main characters perspectives. 

What I liked about the book are its portrayals of the difficult world of high school - especially for a student struggling with social and academic challenges.  It does this without the cardboard villains of bullies and horrid teachers that often people such novels.  Instead several characters are a times unlikeable, while not being terrible people.  I also like that even Adam, the hero of the novel, struggles with his own behavioral issues and emotional ups and downs. 

I also like that this novel deals with some pretty outrageous and terrible child abuse, but feels way less heartfelt than the supposedly true Child Called It books.  Ultimately though, the severity of the abuse is, I think, its undoing.  The novel ends with a far too rapid, and too rosy resolution of the plot.  Despite this, I still would suggest it to a student since its overall arc is one of compassion, love and the healing power of kindness and friendship.

Perfectly Not Perfect

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2017]
344 p. ; 22 cm.

I added this book to the library this school year after seeing it highly recommended in a review, and then seeing that it was a finalist for The National Book Award, I figured I had to read it.  I am very glad that I did. 

This book was great.  I was afraid that it would be a bit of a sentimentalizing or romanticizing look at a Mexican American family, but instead it was a book about the complex and difficult pains of loving and hating your family, of feeling trapped, of being poor, and of not fitting in.  It's not only a family drama, but is also a mystery of a death and unraveling the secret life of someone you think you know (or maybe I should say unraveling the secret lives of several people you think you know).  At its heart it's a thoughtful book about love.  It is a very tender book, but unlike Canales' The Tequila Worm, it has a lot of edge to it. 

The book follows the main character, high-schooler Julia, as she tries to grapple with several challenges: who really was her older, "perfect," recently deceased sister, how can she escape the limits of family and neighborhood to become the writer and intellectual she hopes to be, and how can she deal with the oppressive love of her grief stricken and overly strict parents?  Julia's trials over the course of the novel are interesting, sometimes surprising, often funny and worth the read.   Will I recommend this book? Absolutely



     

Transformative

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
New York : Flatiron Books, 2016.
280 p. ; 22 cm.

I'm glad I read Russo's book about a transgender teen girl who has moved to live with her father and attend a new high school after bullying and brutal assault at her previous hometown and school.

I think what I loved most is that the book manages to be basically a sweet tale of friendship and romance - while threading that narrow ground of avoiding being either a tale of brutality and violence or a naive upbeat "everything will be okay" fable.  As the review from Kirkus notes, it is "a sweet, believable romance that stokes the fires of hope without devolving into saccharine perfection or horrific tragedy."

It's a great book for trans teens, adults and cisgender folks like me! 

I also really liked that the author, a trans woman, has an afterword, especially meant for cis readers, where she explains ways in which her story reflects only one version of reality (and a creatively fictionalize one at that), and should not be taken as plain truth guide to what life is like for trans teens.  She also includes several hotline resources for readers who may be contemplating suicide.

Admit It, You Loved It

Confessions by Kanae Minato
New York : Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Co., 2014.
234 p. ; 21 cm.

Ok, maybe I didn't love it, but it is a good read.  It's funny to see a book praised as "a nasty little masterpiece" or "the most delightfully evil book you will read this year" - but that is the verdict on this well received first-book phenom of Japanese author, Kanae Minato.    

I found the opening of the book to be slightly disorienting - the avenging teacher at the heart of this novel is addressing her students in a way that no middle school teacher would in the US, but once you get past the slightly different mannerisms of the opening, the novel quickly pulls you in and doesn't let go. The novel opens with a punch, a teacher knows that two of her young students have killed her child, and she is leaving the school - but will get even.

The novel has been compared favorably to Gone Girl, and like that novel, it presents a really nasty view of human relationships - in this case between parents and children, children and children, and teachers and children.  There's really no redeeming characters in the book, but that doesn't stop it from being well plotted and compelling.  Part of Minato's success is the shifting narrative viewpoint.  We hear the story from about six different characters' perspectives - and from each come disturbing and/or shocking revelations.

I would definitely recommend this to a student who wants to read a good murder-thriller, revenge novel.  After all it's a vile little read that you just can't put down.

Ghostly Thrills

Famous Last Words by Katie Alender
New York, NY : Point, 2014.
312 p. ; 22 cm.

I'm usually no fan of books about serial killers - but I decided to read this one since it got many positive reviews, including being chosen for YALSA's 2015 Top Ten Quick Picks for reluctant readers.

I found Famous Last Words an entertaining read.  I liked that its focus is not so much on the details of the murders that are happening in the world of the main character, but instead on the life of teen protagonist, Willa, as she has wrestles with grief over her deceased father and her radically new life in Hollywood where her new step-father is a well-known and very wealthy movie director.

To complicate matters, there is a ghost in the new house where Willa and her mother now live.  Willa also has to navigate life as a new student in a new high school where she makes one new friend, Marnie, and comes to have a reluctant friendship with Wyatt, her lab partner who has a creepy obsession with the murders. Throw a very cute and romantic young assistant to her new father into the mix and the plot just zooms along.

It's not a great read, but it's a fun read, and one I'd recommend to any student asking if we had a good thriller, or murder mystery, or ghost story, or romance - or all of the above!

King Ick

King Dork by Frank Portman
New York : Delacorte Press, c2006.
344 p. ; 22 cm.

Some books work for me and some don't.  This one just didn't, which surprised me since it received a lot of very positive reviews.

As someone who has been working in public schools for over a decade, I found what Booklist calls "a humorous, scathing indictment of the current public education system" to be instead a cynical, crass and deeply dishonest portrayal of public school life.  The high school of Dorkworld is a vicious place where faculty gladly and frequently bully students, where bullying by students is completely accepted and condoned, and where the academics are non-existent.  That would all be ok, if the intention of hte book was to create a exaggerated parody of public high schools.  Additionally, the teachers in Dorkworld are a bunch of imbeciles, bullies, fools, and/or pornographic criminals - and the academic world they preside over is one where even the AP classes offer little more than inane fluff.

Finally, the main "hero" of Dorkworld is supposedly an unappealing outsider subject to bullying, ridicule and insults - but as the novel ends it becomes apparent that he's really as crass as any of the pathological normals that he hates, considers himself better than everyone else, and somehow ends up as the sensual boy-toy of two rather attractive girls.

The writing is pretty good.  Dialogue is well done.  But for me this book just lacks heart.

Homage to Gatsby

Even In Paradise by Chelsey Philpot
New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2014]
360 p. ; 22 cm.

This debut novel received a lot of praise and I think it is well deserved.  So often I'll read a young adult novel where the characters are on witty overdrive, or hyped-up cynicism - but not Chelsey Philpot's Paradise. The Booklist reviewer notes that there is "nothing...we haven't seen before" - and notes that Philpot knows this too, and so offers a graceful pleasure of a read as she probes the intensities of love - in friendship, in family, and in romance.

The novel revels in the private boarding school setting, the old-money wealthy setting of the Buchanan's vacation estate on Nantucket.  She also conveys the way that this wealth and Buchanan's sense of having an elite place in the world wows the narrator who - from a working class family - is attending the boarding school and becomes a part of the Buchanan "family" due to fortunate happenstance.

I was pleased that Philpot did not over use the upper class - lower class differences to create false drama, but instead leaves it to the main character to figure out what can work, and what can not as she finds herself more and more involved and more and more in love with the "great Buchanans."

I'd definitely recommend this to a student who likes well written relationship novels.

Get Real

Reality Boy by A. S. King
New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2014.
353 p. ; 21 cm.

I wasn't sure I'd like this book, but it is well-written, interesting and nicely plotted. The novel picks up with now 16 year old Gerald who achieved dubious fame as a 5 year old reality TV "star" - appearing in a Nanny 911 type show where he was supposedly "the troubled child" because he defecated around the house to express his anger and frustration.  Due to this unpleasant behavioral trait, Gerald, got nicknamed "The Crapper" and has never lived it down.

The novel follows Gerald as he deals with his anger, powerlessness, and developing romantic relationship.  We learn there were a lot of terrible truths that were papered over by the reality TV producers and that the troubled one wasn't really Gerald.

There is a lot of humor, heart, and depth to Reality Boy (it really is a fun read) and I'll recommend it to students asking about a good book to read.  My main complaint with this book is that in the interest of heightening conflict - the villains of the book (you'll have to read it to find out) are stunningly villainous (downright sociopathic/psychopathic).  It's not that such characters don't exist, it's just that I didn't quite believe it in this context.  That said, Reality Boy is a good book that should appeal to a wide variety of readers.

A Tough One

Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2005.
165 p. ; 22 cm.

I nearly didn't post on this book, mainly because it's getting a bit old (2005), but it was such a powerful and tough little book that I had to write up a review.  I've wanted to read the book since my son read it years ago, and I'm glad that I finally did.  Inexcusable is the story of a date rape and is written from the point of view of Kier Sarafian, the perpetrator, who relentlessly tries to excuse and justify his deed.  The book moves right along, and - with it's strong character development, nice sports angle, and dramatic relationship crises - should appeal to both young men and women.  

The novel received a lot of praise when it came out, including being a National Book Award finalist. And after reading it, I can see why.  The strength of Lynch's book, as pointed out by reviewers, is his ability to keep the book from being an easy "black and white" case of good guy / bad guy.  Instead  Lynch gives us a character study of the kind of "good guy" whose charm, recklessness, immaturity, arrogance and self-denial are, in fact, the very components of a self-centered and self-serving sexual user and potential rapist.

By telling the novel from the point of view of the accused, Lynch is able to explore the blurred morality of a perpetrator who refuses to accept that he has done anything wrong.  In this way he is able to draw the reader into the same moral questions around consent, manipulation, and violation.  Students who read it will have to wrestle with how reliable a narrator Kier is and just how much of a "good guy" is he.  The book would be a great book for sparking discussions and would pair well with Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak.

Lovely Love Story

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
New York : St. Martin's Griffin, 2013.
328 p. ; 22 cm.

Eleanor is an outsider (who thinks she's fat) in a family with a volatile, creepy step-Dad, and Park is a quiet Korean-American who is neither popular nor unpopular. These two "somewhat-misfits" find each other on the first day of 11th grade on the bus - and after a slow start, fall in love.

Rowell has managed to create a really engaging and interesting love story - built on strong characters, dialog and conflict.  The story manages to be both mature, but incredibly sweet and almost naive.  I think the thing I loved best about this book is that instead of building on the myths of romantic love with all its surface appeal, she manages to convey how two young people can develop a real appreciation for each other's uniqueness, intelligence, and sweetness (while also falling for each other physically).

I especially appreciated Rowell's ability to convey some of the misgivings that a love partner can have (what will others think of me dating this outsider, this strange-dressing kid, this unpopular person?).

There is also a nice play-off in this book between the loving home of Park (who has a manly but kind Dad and an appearance-concerned, but sweet mom who is Korean) and Eleanor who lives in a poor family with several young kids, a kind but wimpy mother who ultimately sides with Eleanor's dangerous, alcoholic stepfather.

How Eleanor and Park fall in love and how they will handle the impossibilities of Eleanor's situation drive the story forward and provide an interesting and poignant end to the novel.

Rowell's book was a Printz honor book this year, and I can see why!

The Intoxicating Now

The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
New York : Knopf, c2008.
294 p. ; 22 cm.

This novel made its way to the movie screens late this summer - after receiving critical praise at Sundance 2013.  After seeing the positive reviews of the film, I wanted to read The Spectacular Now, and I'm glad I did.

Sutter Keely is the hero/antihero of this well written novel. He's a senior in high school who loves having fun, going to parties, having and not having girlfriends, telling good stories, drinking, and hearing himself talk.  In spite of his growing dependence on alcohol, and in spite of being a bit of a fast-talking, self-satisfied goof-off - Sutter has a lot of heart and really wants to do right by those he cares about.

The novel avoids easy plot events that seemed to be coming, and instead deals with the very real and often difficult emotional life of its characters - all while entertaining the reader with humor, sparkling dialogue, and an interesting plot.  The only really tricky thing about the book is its matter of fact acceptance of Sutter's alcoholism - but even there, the novel allows events and the reactions of others to get the reader really thinking about the complications of substance use.

Tharp has a wonderful ear for dialogue and makes a novel that young people can just enjoy for its humor and easy-to-relate-to situations, while really going deeper into the complicated process that a young person will face if they are trying to be authentic, decent, true to themselves, and caring toward those they love.  Definitely a novel worth reading.

Payback and Karma

Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood by Eileen Cook
New York : Simon Pulse, 2010.
261 p. ; 21 cm.

Well written fun! What more can I say about this very readable revenge tale.  The plot seems straight-forward enough: 8th grader gets horribly betrayed and humiliated by her best friend (a popularity-aspiring "mean girl"); moves away for 3 years; and then returns for her senior year with a very different look, and a lusciously detailed plan for payback. 

As you might guess, her campaign for revenge doesn't go in exactly a straight line, but instead leads her to discover a few truths about herself and the costs of deception and revenge.  All of this is woven into a very enjoyable, thoughtful, occasionally humorous and believable story that is hard to put down.

Getting Revenge is not a great novel, but it doesn't aspire to be that - but it is a novel that exceeds its modest aims, and has more depth to it than you might think on just glancing at it's appealing cover (see the graphic above), and the humorous by-line on the cover: "This time, the mean girl is going down."

Next time a student asks for something "good to read" and is looking for something fun, I won't hesitate suggesting this solid work of teen revenge and self-discovery fiction.