It's Monday, what are you reading? (27)

I've been away from these for awhile because I haven't been reading much, but I'm going to try to change that, so here's this last week!

Last week I finished reading: 
Promised by Caragh M. O'Brien

Conflicted emotions about this book, yes it was awesome and satisfying, but it was also the last book in one of my favourite trilogies which means that Gaia's story is over. Definitely recommend it though!

Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

The romance in this was a little weird, I didn't quite believe that so many guys would be desperate over Mira, even if they were "fated" to be together. But I loved the world-building and the darkness of the fairytale retelling, really original and wonderful to read. 

What I plan to read this week:
The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Going to be finishing this one today, I actually have been listening to it on audiobook at the gym. I'm enjoying it a lot, but I kinda wonder how special it would be if you didn't grow up during the 90s and have this nostalgia about VHS and dial-up internet.

See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

I really don't like the cover of this book, but the story sounded intriguing. It's a middle grade I think, because the main character is 12, but it definitely has cross over appeal. I'm actually about a quarter the way in and loving it so far. I know there's a dark twist eventually though, kinda has my stomach in knots wondering what/when it will be.

Shine by Lauren Myracle

Just started this, really moving so far and I'm only one or two chapters in. It's one I've been meaning to pick up for awhile now, so I'm glad I've finally done it.

All These Lives by Sarah Wylie

This sounds really intriguing, I love twin stories, and I've heard the writing is quite lovely. I haven't finished 4 books in a week in probably two months but I'm going to be ambitious and see how it goes.

What are you reading this Monday?

Take A Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg

Take A Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg

Release Date: April 1st 2012
Pages: 278
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
Buy It: Book Depository

Emme, Sophie, Ethan, and Carter are seniors at a performing arts school, getting ready for their Senior Showcase recital, where the pressure is on to appeal to colleges, dance academies, and professionals in show business.

This was a really fun and charming read. It's the kind of book you can pick up and finish without even remembering to get a drink of water, because Eulberg's writing flows smoothly and the story has a lot of excitement to it. It's definitely YA beach read type book, there may not be a lot of huge issues dealt with it, but it felt real and it was an enjoyable and relaxing experience. That is, assuming you don't want to actually like the characters in the books you read, because I didn't like 50% of four narrators in Take A Bow.

Sophie is clearly not meant to be likable, or at least I don't think she is, considering how awful she treats her "best" friend Emme. Carter, a former child star, was okay. Emme was a sweet character, but she seemed just a bit too perfect– her major flaw was that she was too nice and too understanding of Sophie, letting her take advantage of her, and that's the kind of character flaw that gets on my nerves (especially if it's the only one!). In terms of Ethan, he had some redeeming qualities, but I hated how he justified cheating and it was made to seem okay in the context of the book; cheating because you love someone? That's something I just can't stomach.

Somehow even though I didn't fall in love with any of these characters, I still enjoyed reading their stories. It can be fun to read from the perspective of the mean girl like Sophie, so she was probably my favourite to read about, just because she was so awful. Besides for Emme as a character, there was another major thing in Take A Bow that didn't feel realistic, and that was the dialogue. Here's one excerpt from Carter's perspective (where the dialogue is written like a script):

"EMME: I hope you don’t mind, Carter, but I was telling Trevor about how you’ve been doing some of your own art, and how I thought that maybe he could give you some pointers.

TREVOR: Can totally do that. I love seeing other people’s work. And seeing anything that’s being done outside these walls would be a welcome sight. Here, let me give you my number."

Honestly, not only is the style written like a script, but the words felt that way to me too, like puppets being told what to say. Even the way the characters talk to themselves, their internal dialogue, feels too obvious. One thinks:

"But the second I realized that I was the one who was preventing myself from being happy, a whole new world has opened up for me."

 It's really hard for me to imagine somebody really thinking that, and it was that kind of cheesy writing that sometimes made it hard to take the book seriously. But it didn't stop Take A Bow from being a fun, easy to read book. I haven't seen the movie, but I sorta imagine it like Fame in book form. I also never had a problem telling the difference between the four narrators, which is so important in a book like this, and which usually leads me to avoid novels with more than two points of view. Overall, even if Eulberg's dialogue and justification of cheating weren't something I enjoyed, Take A Bow was a charming book with some funny moments and a story that was easy to read. I'd definitely pick up another book by Eulberg when I'm looking to relax in the future. 

Mini Reviews: Hallowed by Cynthia Hand and Prized by Caragh M. O'Brien

Two of my favourite novels I read in 2011 were definitely Unearthly by Cynthia Hand and Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien, and I was so excited to dive into their follow-ups. Luckily, neither author disappoints and I've decided to do mini reviews for these two intense novels. Plus, I’ve somehow managed to discuss them without spoiling the first novels in the series, incase you somehow managed to miss out when they were first released (and you can now fix that by getting them in paperback!)

Hallowed is the sequel to Cynthia Hand’s debut novel, Unearthly, in which part angel Clara Gardner is torn between her quest, and reason for existing, and the boy that’s not a part of it. The complicated love triangle continues in Hallowed, in which Clara deals with love, lost, and trying to figure out who she is. Hallowed was even more intense than its predecessor, in particular due to a tragic event I did not see coming. What Hand does so well in her novels, besides for a charming love interest with a Southern accent, is make Clara, despite her powers, relatable.

The Unearthly Trilogy is a unique spin on coming of age novels, in which teenage concerns are only part of the growing responsibility that Clara faces. The only thing that I didn’t enjoy about reading Hallowed is how the final book won’t be released until 2013. There’s also a decision made at the ending of the book that I didn’t agree with and I’m seriously hoping that Clara redeems herself in book three.

As much as I loved O’Brien’s dystopian debut, Birthmarked, featuring the strong heroine Gaia and perfect for fans of The Hunger Games, I did not expect the follow up to be anything like Prized. In fact, Prized takes place in a totally different world than Birthmarked, in which Gaia has to face a slew of new and incredibly difficult trials when she finds herself in a community where women are the minority, and the rulers. The perverse truth is that although things are extremely different than the marginalization that Gaia is used to, they aren’t any better. In this world, a kiss is a crime, and for Gaia, falling in love may be the most difficult struggle of all.

My only disappointment with Prized was that after being accustomed to such a strong heroine in Birthmarked it was disappointed to see how weak Gaia became, accepting society’s norm without the fierce questioning that characterized her in book one. Though in context, it is slightly more understandable, it was a relief when she got some of her fire back.

Overall, at a time when bookstores are flooded with paranormal and dystopian stories, Hand and O’Brien have managed to write two with compelling and authentic characters, as well as storylines so intense it’s amazing I didn’t get paper cuts while flipping the pages of these books, they were that heart-pounding. If you’re unsure about continuing these series, or if you’ve managed to miss out on them so far, the release of the second books in the Unearthly and Birthmarked Trilogies is a perfect excuse to get started because if anything, the second books get better.

This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

Release Date: June 19th 2012
Pages: 320
Format: E-galley
Source: Raincoast Books
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Also by this Author: Cracked Up To Be; Some Girls Are
Buy It: Book Depository

Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live.

Courtney Summers writes a zombie novel. It seems so strange at first: this author who has published three edgy contemporary novels, two of which I have read (and loved)- Cracked Up To Be and Some Girls Are- suddenly decides to add the undead to her story? But in reality, This Is Not A Test is actually more similar to her previous books than I ever would have expected. Yes, there are zombies, but there is also a sorta unlikable main character with a secret, a romance between two people that don't really get along, and the kind of story that leaves you breathless with quickly turning pages. In fact, all the zombies really do is force six people together in a confined space for an extended period of time, six people who would never be together under any other circumstances, and then the reader gets to see what happens.

I don't really read about zombies, but I do watch a lot of horror films, and when it came to that aspect of This Is Not A Test I wanted a little more from the story. If there were going to be zombies, I wanted their existence to seem less random. At the same time, maybe that is what makes them so scary, the fact that they appear out of nowhere, all of a sudden. I guess I was never completely convinced that there had to be zombies, and that the same story couldn't have been told during a war for example, with bombs going off outside. There were a few key moments where the zombies were crucial, but the fact that most of the book relies on the terror they trigger, not them specifically, makes This Is Not A Test read a lot more like a contemporary novel than a paranormal.

Like Summers' main characters tend to be, Sloane was difficult but conflicted. When the novel begins, she's planning to kill herself, and then the zombies attack. What makes her existence even more complicated than Parker from Cracked Up To Be and Regina from Some Girls Are is the fact that she manages to live despite wanting to die, while so many others have died while desperately wanting to live. In a way, it's really frustrating. But at the same time, it makes Sloane's experiences incredibly interesting and unique to read about, especially watching her develop and grow throughout the novel, something Summers excels at like usual.

Even though Sloane is the main character of This Is Not A Test, her five companions each get their own little story too, and I found them each interesting to read about in their own way even if they didn't have the complexity to them that Sloane did. I did feel like the story ended a bit too soon, I mean, it's not that it ended abruptly exactly, it was just that I wanted a little bit more from it I guess. It has all this intensity and heart-pounding action, so it goes by really fast, and in a way it felt like it was over before it was really over. The beginning is just so amazing, that opening chapter blew me away, and the ending was more subtle. That said, I appreciate the restraint that it must have taken to end the story there, and it is also beautiful and twisted in its own way.

This Is Not A Test is incredibly easy to read, exciting and horrifying at the same time, thanks to Summers' wonderfully sharp writing–– it manages to have all the dark honesty of her contemporary books, there just happens to be zombies involved.

Teen Boat! by Dave Roman and John Green

Teen Boat! by Dave Roman (author) and John Green (illustrator)

Release Date: May 8th 2012
Pages: 144
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Buy It: Book Depository

High school can be a time of terrible angst—Fs on tests, bullying jerks, broken hearts, and late-stage puberty are just some of the potential issues that all teen boys face. But what about the issues facing a Teen Boat?

Whoops! When I got Teen Boat! in the mail I thought the illustrations were by some guy named Dave Roman (actually a well-established author of graphic novels) and that John Green, like Looking For Alaska John Green, was the writer. Turns out John Green is also the name of an illustrator, with a few titles under his belt. So there was definitely an adjustment when I started reading Teen Boat! but it didn't take long for me to start enjoying its unique charm.

At it's heart, this is really an absurd graphic novel, and in that sense it reminded me of this series that used to be really popular when I was a kid, Captain Underpants. I really think this book would be perfect for the same kind of elementary school aged audience. Green's drawings are really well done, and they capture the boy-to-boat transformation in a way that makes it seem slightly less ridiculous than it actually is, and just as awesome.

Teen Boat Transformation © Dave Roman and John Green

Roman's words work perfectly with Green's drawings and it wasn't a surprise for me to read these two guys are best friends. The book just has a perfect harmony between text and image. I especially appreciated Roman's many nautical puns, they had me chuckling out loud quite a few times. What I didn't like was Teen Boat's treatment of his best friend Joey, a girl that clearly has a crush on him– but I honestly couldn't tell you why, since all he does is treatment her like dirt and assume that she'll always be there. I would have loved a little more development on that storyline, at least having Joey stand up for herself a bit even if Teen Boat didn't realize what he did was wrong. Instead, she just crushed on him more.

Weak female character aside, Teen Boat! was a cute read, and definitely outside of my usual picks. If I'd known that it was the wrong John Green, I don't know if I would have read it, and so in the end I'm grateful for that mishap; one that belongs perfectly among the befuddled pages of the book itself. In the end, this is an odd and charming book with great drawings and a crazy storyline that doesn't take itself too seriously; Teen Boat! is a great choice for middle grade and the younger spectrum of young adult readers. But even if you're a bit– or like me, a lot– older it's a funny reminder about why I'm so glad that I'm not a teen anymore!