Zero by Tom Leveen

Zero by Tom Leveen
 
Release Date: April 24th 2012
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Random House Canada
Buy It: Book Depository

After graduating from a Phoenix, Arizona, high school, aspiring artist Amanda "Zero" Walsh unexpectedly begins a relationship with a drummer in a punk rock band, which helps her come to terms with her feelings about herself, her falling out with her best friend, and her parents' personal problems.

I actually wasn't quite sure I was going to finish this novel, because the first few chapters didn't particularly entrance me. But I ended up being so glad I gave it a shot, because the end result was funny, heart-warming, and easy to relate to. One of the things that Leveen did so well was Zero's insecurity about her art and her body. I also really liked that her boyfriend, Mike, isn't okay with it; it was so refreshing to have a love interest that really wants his girlfriend to have confidence in herself, and makes a genuine effort to help her reach that. Of course, in the end confidence has to come from within, but Mike's nudging her in that direction certainly helped.

There are two things that really define Zero, her art and her music, and Leveen incorporates both of these passions throughout the novel. That said, I felt like there were a few too many art comparisons, especially when it came to Dali as a quote by him already began each chapter; everything seemed to be a blank canvas or a melting watch. As a reader, I didn't need that constant reminder that she's an artist, it was already clear, so I wished the references had been toned down a bit. In comparison, the punk lyrics quoted throughout the novel worked great and added a nice dimension to the story, but there were only a few of them. I think that this was a case of "less is more".

The most heart-breaking aspect of Zero's story is her family life, and the nuclear meltdown of her parent's marriage and her father's drinking. I could definitely understand why she wanted to move to Chicago, as it was neither a healthy nor an inspiring place to live. But the way that things wrapped up in that storyline... it just didn't have the emotional punch that I was expecting. Maybe it was because Zero's parents felt a little flat to me, it was like everything was supposed to be explained by the fact that they'd had her as a teenager, which didn't sit quite right with me.

When it came to the relationship between Mike and Zero, I felt like it developed in a really authentic way. I also thought the representation of sex in the various teenage characters' lives was very believable, and appreciated Zero's best friend and her honesty on the subject; if anything, I would have liked there to have been more of Jenn in the story. That said, there was a side plot (minor spoiler, so highlight to read), pregnancy scare, that I could have done without; it seemed like unnecessary drama for no reason and made me roll my eyes a bit.

Overall, Zero– both the character and the novel– surprised me. When I started the book I was skeptical, but the character growth was very strong and the end result was that Zero was a realistic and charming novel, and I would definitely pick up other books by Leveen in the future.

The Princess of Iowa by M. Molly Backes

 The Princesses of Iowa by M. Molly Backes

Release Date: May 8th 2012
Pages: 464
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Candlewick
Buy It: Book Depository

Paige Sheridan is pretty, rich, and popular. But when a night of partying ends in an it-could-have-been-so-much worse crash, everything changes. Her best friends start ignoring her, her boyfriend Jake grows cold and distant, and her  younger sister now views her with contempt. The only bright spot is her creative writing class, led by a new teacher who encourages students to be true to themselves. But who is Paige, if not the homecoming princess everyone expects her to be?

What makes this book is the setting. A lot of the story itself is kinda ordinary, but I honestly just loved reading a book that took place in Iowa. There are so many American states and it seems like most novels I read take place in the same select few (Mostly New York and California) so it was wonderful to get a feel for a place I've never been. There are all kinds of unique and interesting details in The Princesses of Iowa that really bring the place to life.

I'm pretty sure Paige's mom is one of the worst I've read about, and that's even considering the fact that she's not a drug addict and she didn't abandon Paige on somebody's doorsteps. Her manipulation and damage is much more subtle, and for that reason I found it even harder to read about. Paige isn't perfect either, but as a reader I could see her potential, and then it seemed like her mom was doing everything possible to push her in the opposite direction– so much concerned with how things looked that she didn't care about how things actually were. 

Jake was another character I didn't like very much, even when he does things that are supposed to be charming, like writing Paige a poem, I just felt like shrugging. He spends all his time with Paige's best friend, Lacey, who also happens to be ignoring him. Needless to say, I never found myself rooting for them to work things out.

The Princesses of Iowa had a strong, emotional message to it, that Backes managed to deliver without sounding preachy, something the subject matter would have made it really easy to fall into. Paige is one of those characters, like Sam in Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall, that you might not exactly like at first– in this case, because she was kinda self-righteous and entitled– but they manage to grow enough over the course of the book that you can appreciate them by the end.

Even though I compared Paige to Sam, this book does not have a place in my heart like Before I Fall. That because as much as I loved the major storyline of the book, The Princesses of Iowa gets distracted and weighed down by this out of nowhere twist involving one of Paige's teachers, and the entire creative writing classes in general played way more of a role in the novel than seemed necessary. A lot of the time, when Backes wrote about what exercises they were doing in the course, it came across as more educational than story-like, and had difficulty keeping my attention.

At the end, the way Paige's experiences and writing came together was harmonious, but in order to get there, there was a lot of dragging that had a hard time keeping my attention. Even though The Princesses of Iowa veered off courses at times, Backes has written a debut with a great setting and some interesting, if not entirely likeable, characters, and I will be interested to see what comes next for her as an author.

The Girl in the Park by Mariah Fredericks

The Girl in the Park by Mariah Fredericks

Release Date: April 24th 2012
Pages: 224
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Random House Canada
Buy It: Book Depository

When Wendy Geller's body is found in Central Park after the night of a rager, newspaper headlines scream,"Death in the Park: Party Girl Found Strangled." But shy Rain, once Wendy's best friend, knows there was more to Wendy than just "party girl." As she struggles to separate the friend she knew from the tangle of gossip and headlines, Rain becomes determined to discover the truth about the murder.

This is a traditional mystery with enough of a unique twist to make it stand out. I enjoyed it a lot more than my other recent YA mystery read, The Night She Disappeared by April Henry, and I think a lot of that has to do with the narrator, Rain. Rain was born with a cleft palate, and as a result had a severe speech impediment for many years. Between surgery and speech therapy, the issue itself is gone, but it's left behind a severe insecurity about speaking in public or doing anything that makes her stand out.

Then came Wendy. I love reading about charismatic bad girls, but what Fredericks does in The Girl in the Park is make that character not just secretly disliked, but openly hated in some situations. That's because Wendy has a habit of sleeping with other peoples' boyfriends to get revenge. But could it have gotten her killed?

At the time the murder takes place, Wendy and Rain aren't actually friends anymore, but Rain still feels a deep connection, even a bit of a responsibility, for Wendy. Their friendship, and the reason it ended, is described in flashback. In general, I'm not a fan of flashbacks, but in this book they work perfectly to compliment the story, providing hints into what may have happened as well as insight into Wendy and Rain.

I loved the dynamic between Rain and Wendy, and felt the characters in general were authentic and interesting to read about.  Even though I haven't had Rain's experience with speech difficulties and the bullying they triggered, I could really relate to how she felt, and I think that's because Fredericks drew on universal human feelings in terms of insecurity and how past experiences can define our present, especially in high school.

There were a few missteps for me, and seasoned mystery readers may predict the killer long before the reveal, but there are still plenty of red herrings. My main moment of disbelief came when, instead of going to the cops immediately, Rain confronts the killer, at which point the killer reveals everything... even though it's an awfully stupid thing for them to do. It's a pretty traditional way for the killer's motives to be revealed, but I still didn't find it terribly realistic.

Despite the predictability of the climax, this was a thrilling mystery that was a fast and enjoyable read. I'd definitely consider future novels by Fredericks, and recommend The Girl in the Park to those looking for a well-paced and well-written YA mystery with authentic characters.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Release Date: February 6th 2012
Pages: 352
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Random House Canada
Buy It: Book Depository

Two young women are thrown together during World War II: one a working-class girl from Manchester, the other a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a wireless operator. Yet whenever their paths cross, they complement each other perfectly and before long become devoted friends. But then a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France. She is captured by the Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. The story begins in "Verity's" own words, as she writes her account for her captors.

At first, this came across as another one of those cases, like Alone in the Classroom by Elizabeth Hay, where the person telling the story couldn't possibly know all the details she is sharing about another person's life. But as the story unfolded, and the explanations made it believable, and I was glad not to have that aspect preventing me from fully enjoying this heart-breaking and powerful story of friendship. In fact, I actually ended up enjoying the unreliability of the narrator, something that can be wonderful when it's done well, like in Code Name Verity and The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.

Every once in awhile I come across a discussion with somebody looking for a young adult novel without romance, and it always feels near-impossible to come up with one. Then, recently, I read Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard, and now Code Name Verity. Although set decades apart and completely dissimilar, both novels are about friendship, not lust, and provide a refreshing reminder that sometimes teenagers think about different things; especially in a time of war. The friendship between the two girls in Wein's novel has an added element of danger because of the time period; in fact, when the story begins, one of them has already been captured as a prisoner of war, but it's also the kind of friendship that is universal, the kind of profound relationship that happens when two people just connect, the kind of bond that can last a lifetime (and often does).

My only problem with Code Name Verity is that, perhaps because of its epistolary format (the entire thing has been written down, starting with Verity in prison), sometimes it became too much a narrative and too little actual interaction between characters. As a result, I found it dragged, simply because I was waiting for something to happen, especially in the beginning. My other minor complaint is the very ending of the novel, which is written by a character that hadn't been important at all, and so felt a bit jarring and unnecessary in a way.

That said, I absolutely adored the way that Wein wrote this historical novel. By that, I mean, it's filled with interesting details, most of which have stories behind them (and she lets the reader in on a few in the author's note). Code Name Verity not only brings the time period to life, but also the feelings of the characters. These two girls were irrevocably tied to when the book took place, it didn't seem like Wein just took contemporary characters and threw them into the past. But also, the reader really gets insight into their emotions and feelings, things like what it would be like to be a woman with a passion for something that women weren't supposed to do (flying). In combination, these facts make Code Name Verity succeed both as historical fiction, but also as a story.

Overall, Code Name Verity was a fantastic and rich read, a refreshing break from boy-crazy girls and instead having main characters who have things that are a lot more life-threatening than romance to worry about. There were lots of great twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. Though it did have a slow start as well as a few other portions I was tempted to skim, I was glad I didn't because in the end everything tied together in an emotional and absolutely heart-breaking way. In the end, Wein's novel is well-researched and well-written; Code Name Verity is a powerful story of friendship from an insightful and unique perspective.

Author Genevieve Graham on Where the Writing Happens

There are almost 90,000 words in “Sound of the Heart”. Isn’t that wild? This blog post is less than 500. And yet as I was writing, there were so many more. I had to edit it back. So it kind of begs the question: Where do all those words come from?

Ah. I’m so glad you asked. Because that’s something I’d like to know as well!

It’s probably easiest to start with the physical. When I write, I head into my quiet office (which my husband assembled for me) with a cup of tea. I light a couple of candles … then stare at my computer screen.

Tour from left:

• Usually I have tea there, but we’re having a bit of a heat wave lately, so I’m going with ice water. No, that is not vodka.
• Basket of pens, most of which don’t work.
• Hershey kisses. Yeah, so?
• Candles (at least one). I like these new dangling square ones I picked up a few weeks ago, but they’re expensive so I only burn them on special occasions.
• Computer (this is the third laptop I’ve owned since 2007. I’m a big Mac believer now).
• Cat carving which my beloved husband made for me. I’m a dog person, but he says I collect so much stuff (yes, I’m disorganized) that he calls me a Cat Lady. I just like it because he made it.

The entire wall in front of me is a huge world map, which I sometimes use to distract me when I need something new and entertaining in my head. Like when I see “Farafangana” in Madagascar and wonder what kind of stuff goes on there. You know. Very important stuff.

Right. Now onto the writing part. Like I said, I stare at the computer screen, and I kind of wait. I think, in a way, I meditate, though there are no ohms or soothing imaginings going on in my world.

Actually, my dog, Murphy, occasionally does ohms. Kind of like a “Poor me, what a hard life I lead” kind of a comment.

Then the words start flowing, and it’s absolute magic. Sometimes the pictures are so clear in my head, I feel like I’m channelling the stories. Words literally fly out of my fingers. It’s kind of interesting, because a few people have suggested I carry around a tape recorder kind of thing so I can just speak into it and type out stories later, but I’ve found I can’t do that. The words get stuck in my brain. So I have to type. Back in 1990 I bought one of those “Typing Tutor” programmes, then taught myself to type when I was applying for a job as a marketing assistant at a top advertising agency in Toronto. Seriously. In two weeks I went from 0 to 85 wpm. I have no idea how quickly I type now, but my fingers move more quickly than my brain most of the time. I can’t carry on much of a conversation with my voice, but if I could type it I’d be just fine!

So the question remains: where do all those words come from? And the answer is still: “I don’t know.” My favourite part about writing Historical Fiction is that no one can tell me what I’m writing didn’t actually happen. After all, no one alive today was alive then (unless you’re talking about reincarnation or something). The stories come to me from somewhere I’ve never been, giving me words I rarely use in my day to day life. Where do they come from? What if I am actually channelling them? What if the words come straight from the stories themselves because … maybe, just maybe, they really happened.

Genevieve Graham graduated from the University of Toronto in 1986 with a Bachelor of Music in Performance (playing the oboe). Writing became an essential part of Genevieve’s life a few years ago, when she began to write her debut novel, Under the Same Sky. The companion novel, Sound of the Heart, was released May 1, 2012.  

Thanks so much to Genevieve for stopping by In The Next Room! To learn more about her novel, Sound of the Heart, stop by her website.