Reads things. Writes things. Fluent in sarcasm. Willful optimist. Cat companion, chocolate connoisseur, coffee drinker. There are some who call me Mom.
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It doesn’t seem possible to write a hilarious book about depression and anxiety, but that’s exactly what author Jenny Lawson has done in Furiously Happy. Her wacky adventures fill the pages and her unique view of herself and the world around her challenge readers to embrace their own weird. She has a keen sense of irony and writes in a rambling-yet-engrossing way. She takes readers through the highs and lows of book tours, a trip to Australia, and the challenges of depression and anxiety in daily life.
I think I read this book at exactly the right time. I’d seen it on several blogger’s Top Ten Tuesday lists for various reasons, and had it on my wish list. This fall, as my own anxiety levels rose, I felt like maybe the time had come to read something funny and perhaps to add some additional coping skills to my arsenal.
Reading the book challenged me to think about my own life and the areas in which I pressure myself to be perfect or to perform a certain way. There are a lot more than I realized. I love the openness in Furiously Happy and the way Lawson sort of throws things out there, acknowledges her shortcomings but embraces even the difficult parts of who she is. I think we all need more of that in our lives.
Parts of the book made me laugh out loud—actually, much of the book did exactly that. Sometimes that’s all we can do, right? Laugh at the difficult times and find the irony or bizarre humor in the way events unfold around us. Life’s too short not to enjoy the quirks and weirdness that makes us tick. I definitely needed that message, and I recommend this book for anyone struggling with similar feelings.
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content Jenny receives a small handmade model of a vagina with a doll inside that’s meant to be used as an educational aid for kids learning about childbirth.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content None.
Drug Content
Several mentions of drinking alcohol or being drunk.
Julian’s life is a tightrope walk. At school, he hides from belligerent teachers and from his trouble reading. At home, he tiptoes around the house where he’s not allowed to touch anything, where the only things that belong to him are the possessions in the trunk his parents gave him.
When the school counselor gets tired of Julian dodging his appointments with her, she sends her aide, a senior named Adam to find Julian. Adam quickly recognizes Julian as the foster brother who lived with him and his mom five years ago. Now, though, Julian isn’t the chatty kid he once was, and Adam has to figure out why. As he begins to uncover Julian’s secrets, he realizes Julian could be in terrible danger, but trying to rescue him could cost both boys their lives.
This isn’t the book I expected it to be. The story opens with Julian’s point-of-view, and right away, I was pretty hooked. He’s quiet—the kind of kid that struggles to come up with quick responses in conversation. The kind of kid that makes for an easy target to get picked on. But he’s kind and artistic, and I couldn’t help wanting him to find a way through his troubles.
Then I met Adam. Adam is likeable for a whole other host of reasons. He’s bouncy and fun and always upbeat. I loved that about him, and I loved his relationship with his grouchy-but-goodhearted best friend Charlie. I liked that Adam’s ADHD wasn’t the story. You kind of got the picture of how his mind worked and what life was like for him without it being center-stage.
What I didn’t like was the way Adam seemed so protective of Julian in some ways and sort of oblivious in other ways—like bringing him alcohol at a party and expecting his friends not to get Julian too drunk. That didn’t play for me, and I really had a hard time with how casual the attitude about alcohol was, especially when Adam and his mom were so careful about so many other things, like choosing homeopathic remedies over prescription drugs because of adverse side effects. Alcohol doesn’t have adverse side effects? This isn’t a concern?
Anyway. Sorry. Soapbox. Moving on.
The story had so many positive elements in it—messages about the healing power of love in friendships and family, the value of having the support of a community of people through a hard time. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if it lacked some of the casual attitude toward drinking and sex. See below for further notes on content.
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Cultural Elements
I can’t remember any racial descriptions of characters, but I’m not sure if that’s because they’re all hinted to be white or if I just imagined them that way whereas I could have imagined them other ways? Adam is diagnosed with ADHD.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content Some boy-girl kissing. In one scene a boy remembers a moment where he asked a girl to show him her vagina. Later a girl makes a suggestive comment with her hand on the zipper of his pants. (We later learn not much happened there because she was drunk and got sick.) A boy and girl spend several days together alone in a mountain cabin where they decide to have sex. She waits for him in bed, undressed, but no further details are given.
Adam’s group of friends play a game in which one dares another to do something up to and including some nudity. Two boys have to take off their shirts and put palms on each other’s chests. A girl gives a pair of her underwear to a boy and he has to wear them.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content – TRIGGER WARNING One character suffers some extreme physical abuse in more than one scene. Some of those details are pretty disturbing.
Drug Content
Julian goes with Adam to a party where all the kids drink alcohol and someone passes a pipe around the room. Julian drinks what the others give him. Adam tries to make sure it’s lighter stuff, but doesn’t try to keep him from drinking.
Adam’s mom uses homeopathic remedies to treat his ADHD after a bad experience with the side effects of prescription drugs.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Just before Dani and her mother escape to Paris for healing and restoration, Dani learns that her grandfather has been hospitalized. The Paris trip was supposed to be the inspiration to create the artwork that will make Dani’s mother a star, plus the project that will save Dani’s own grade in art class. Now, unless Dani can fix up her grandfather’s house, repair the damaged relationships between him and his children, and find someone to care for the ornery man while they’re gone, her trip is a lost cause.
Dani can’t give up, especially when she learns of her grandmother’s dreams that one day her mom would become a famous painter. As Dani struggles to make her life into the perfect happily-ever-after, she discovers that the people she loves most have other plans, other dreams than the ones she imagined for them. She learns that like her grandfather, she, too must learn to love others beyond what they do for her and for themselves.
I really liked this story. I found Dani easy to identify with. Her struggles with trying to make things turn out right for everyone else really resonated with me, as did her confusion over her feelings for her neighbor and her hurt over her boyfriend’s behavior toward her. It definitely echoed my own teen experience in some ways.
The faith elements play a strong role in the story, but they didn’t seem to dominate or steal the show. I liked that prayer was kind of a natural part of Dani’s life, and that the author included it in such an open, organic way. To me it felt more experiential and less preachy, which I think is a great thing.
If you liked To Get to You by Joanne Bischof, check out Almost There for the similar innocent romance and organic expression of Christian faith.
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Cultural Elements
All characters appear to be white. Dani’s family is wealthy as is her boyfriend’s and friend’s. She meets a boy from much more humble background.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content Dani and her boyfriend are very close but have agreed not to have sex until after marriage. They share kisses, and she becomes nervous if she thinks he has ideas beyond that.
Spiritual Content Dani and her friends pray at difficult intervals throughout the story. Dani shares her faith with her mom, not like salvation prayers, but more like sharing her current experience. For instance, she talks of learning to trust that God will work things out in her life. These deep faith moments happen as though they’re a part of normal life, which might be strange for some readers, but accurately depicts the kind of faith experience of some evangelical Christian families.
Violent Content Dani’s grandfather becomes violent when he doesn’t get his way. Nothing huge, but his temper is definitely not under control. A fire leaves one man dead.
Drug Content
Dani worries about her uncle, a recovering addict. She learns that her friend’s dad is an alcoholic. The story shows no drug abuse.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Fifteen-year-old Jackie Stone’s whole life turns upside down when she discovers not only that her father has a terminal brain tumor, but that he’s decided to auction his life for sale on ebay. As a reality show executive takes control of her family’s lives, Jackie’s whole life begins to come apart. She finds allies in an online community and the courage to fight for her privacy and her family’s dignity. Together they fight to get the cameras out of the house and win her family’s lives back.
Life in a Fishbowl is totally different than Vlahos’s earlier novels. The story follows the experiences of many characters, most of them adults, which kind of breaks tradition in young adult literature. I think what keeps it grounded in the genre is the tone which the story takes. Not many authors can successfully craft a story like this and have it still feel like young adult fiction, but Vlahos does here.
One of the more surprising elements to me was the fact that the brain tumor was an anthropomorphized character as well. At some moments, I struggled with this—it definitely requires a lot of willingness to suspend disbelief. At other moments, it felt like a natural turn in the story. I loved Jackie’s character, but my real favorites were Hazel, an online gaming girl, and Max, Jackie’s friend from Russia. Both really hit that note for me of the shy kids who have so much more going on under the surface. Jackie also had that vibe, too, and the story shows each of them blossoming in the midst of adversity.
The story deals with whether someone has the right to euthanasia. Mostly we see the issue from the side of Jared, who himself wants to have the right to end his life—to have a death with dignity, he says. Members of the Catholic Church oppose him, but there’s not a deep exploration of their position on the issue, and the nun who protests the loudest has her own ulterior motives which only twist further the more deeply she becomes involved in the situation.
The way this plays out was very different from the sort of romanticized version of events in The Loose Ends List by Carrie Firestone, in which terminally ill cruise passengers opt for assisted suicide sometimes earlier in their illnesses.
The issue that truly dominates Life in a Fishbowl is less the issue of euthanasia and more the issue of reality television and the invasion of privacy that other members of Jared’s family suffer once he has signed a contract with the studio. Events get edited and clipped into scenes that look vastly different to the public than the reality Jackie and her family face. Ratings, not reality, govern the show, and cameras lurk in every room, recording everything. Eventually Jackie finds ways to fight fire with fire, releasing her own video clips that show the truth happening inside her home.
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Cultural Elements
Jackie and her family live in Portland, Oregon and appear to be an average, white middle-class family. She befriends a young Russian boy online as part of a school project.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content Jackie and her sister discover their parents in the act of making love. They quietly back away and close the door.
Some brief references to a sexual relationship between an executive and his assistant. No descriptions of their intimate activities.
Jared remembers his first kiss ever and his first kiss with his wife.
Hidden TV cameras record in bathrooms in Jackie’s house. It’s mentioned in passing that unbeknownst to her family, male members of the crew watch the girls shower. Jackie is fifteen and her sister Megan younger.
Spiritual Content A nun bids for Jared Stone’s life on ebay. She considers it a sacred duty to preserve his life, but her motives get swallowed by other, less pious reasons. Her superior also takes the stance that Jared should not be allowed to end his life. When the Catholic hospital becomes responsible for Jared’s medical care, the goal is to keep him alive as long as possible, which conflicts with his own desire to end his life.
Violent Content – see spoiler section A woman slaps a teenage girl. She retaliates by punching the woman.
A TV executive manipulates Jackie and her family (and others) for his own gain. His behavior isn’t violent, but it’s pretty disturbing at times.
Drug Content
Brief references to drug use in a character’s past.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
SPOILERS – Violent Content Continued
A man stabs a dog to death with a knife.
A woman smothers a man in a coma with a pillow. Before he slipped into a coma, he asked her to assist him in ending his life.
Gretchen lives a small life. It started the night a man forced her to the ground and then told her to run, his own terror taking hold of her. Now she keeps to the small safe neighborhood surrounding her home, places where nothing bad can happen. And then she meets the boy who looks like him. Like the one who attacked her. When she meets Phoenix, though, she isn’t afraid. Something about the way he listens, the way he asks the right questions, the way he carries his own trauma and fear, makes her trust him. Soon she’s tangled up in his life and the desperate attempt to save him and his brother from death at the hand of gang members waiting for him back in Ilopango. To stay safe, he must be granted asylum in the US, a rare occurrence for El Salvadoran refugees.
On its face, this is a simple romance. Sad girl meets sadder boy. Both find that to love they must be brave and work toward healing. Underneath that simple story is a deeper, more heartrending one. This is the story of a boy whose home town gave him two choices: live by the gang or die by it. It’s the story of a small Atlanta suburb and the community thousands of miles from El Salvador still affected by the destruction of gang violence.
I feel like I’m not doing a very good job talking this book up because it’s such a serious topic. There are some light moments in which Phoenix and Gretchen joke around. At one point, she makes it her mission to find pupusas, a delicacy that Phoenix remembers from home and craves but can’t find in the US, and that whole adventure is fun and sweet. Phoenix meets a couple who own a tattoo shop (and also remove tattoos) and befriends them. Their quirky personalities brighten up several scenes, and they offer some timely wisdom.
This is a little darker than Marquardt’s first novel, but still definitely worth reading. It took me some time to acclimate to Phoenix’s voice, but other than that, I really enjoyed the story. Definitely add this one to your list if you’re looking for an unusual romance or book that explores social issues.
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Cultural Elements
Phoenix and his brother are from El Salvador. He lives in the US during the story but vividly remembers events in his home in Ilopango.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency. The sections from Phoenix’s point-of-view contain a lot more profanity than the sections from Gretchen’s point-of-view.
Romance/Sexual Content Some scenes show kissing between a boy and girl. At one point the two fall asleep together fully clothed. They briefly discuss waiting to have sex.
Phoenix lives under the guardianship of an older lesbian couple. Phoenix mentions seeing them kiss a couple of times.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content Gretchen remembers being attacked (not sexually). Phoenix recalls some brutal gang violence and bullying. One boy shoots another from a car.
Drug Content
Gretchen’s (still underage) college boyfriend orders a beer with dinner. No one checks his ID.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
When I received an email asking if I’d like to participate in the blog tour for Life in a Fishbowl by Len Vlahos, I knew immediately I had to ask for an interview. Scar Boys by Len Vlahos caught my eye on one of those “Top YA Books You Must Read Like Right Now” lists probably on Buzzfeed or a site like that. I did read and love Scar Boys (yeah, he had me at punk boys in a band– my number one literary weakness.) and eventually got my hands on a review copy of Scar Girl, which was a fantastic follow up. So now, here I am, joined by the wonderful Len Vlahos for some chitchat about his latest novel, Life in a Fishbowl. Yay!
Author Interview with Len Vlahos
Can I sneak in a question about Scar Boys? What made you choose punk as the style of music for the band Harry and Johnny put together? Was it strictly based on your own experience or preferences or is there something more about that genre of music that particularly inspired the story? (Other than the sad truth that there are seriously not enough books about punk kids in bands. What’s up with that?)
I love this question. It was based on both my experience – Woofing Cookies, the band I played in when I was younger, was a punk-pop band – and on knowing first-hand that the punk world is more welcoming to those who don’t conform to standards or norms. It was a perfect fit for Harry.
Yes! Strangely, I hadn’t really thought about the misfit element of the punk scene as it would relate to Harry. But now that you say that, I’m like duh. Yes. Totally fits.
Do you listen to music while you write? Were there songs that most inspired your favorite moments in Life in a Fishbowl?
For the most part, I do not listen to music when I write. My preference is for ambient sound, and anonymity – meaning no family and friends. It’s why I wrote most of Life in a Fishbowl (and Scar Girl) on a commuter train from Connecticut to New York City, and why I do most of my writing now in coffee shops. (We moved to Colorado, so no more commuter train.)
However, I do listen to music when I’m editing, and when I’m writing for blogs. (I’m listening to Bob Marley’s Legend right now. It’s the really cool vinyl in the colors of the Jamaican flag.)
Ha! That’s a fun pick. So all that writing about music on a train with no music. Is there a music element to the story of Life in a Fishbowl?
Deliberately no. So much of The Scar Boys (and Scar Girl) was drawn from personal experience that I really wanted to step outside of my own sphere of knowledge and comfort zone. I wanted to write something cut from whole cloth; to prove to myself that I could really write.
Music won’t play a role in my next book either – can’t share any details about that just yet – but I would like to get back to it someday. (If for no other reason than I get to bring my guitar on book tour.)
A guitar and a book tour sound like a perfect match. I’ve been surprised at how different Life in a Fishbowl is from your other books– not in a bad way! How did the story Life in a Fishbowl come to you? Did the whole idea arrive fully formed, or did one particular element spark the story and gradually it took shape?
It was the latter. I read an online article about a man named Ian Usher who had put his life for sale – his house, his car, even his friends and his cat (if I remember correctly) – after going through a bitter divorce. It made me wonder, what would happen if someone put their actual life for sale on eBay? What would make them do it, and who would bid on it?
At the same time, I had seen a movie when I was younger called Whose Life Is It Anyway? (Not to be confused with Whose Line Is It Anyway?) It was the story a sculptor, who, after an accident and paralyzes him from the neck down, decides to end his life. The film tackles euthanasia head on, and I’ve been fascinated with that topic ever since.
Fishbowl grew out of the clash of those two ideas.
I like how the story explores both those ideas. What do you most hope readers take away from Life in a Fishbowl?
This is a tough question. I guess I hope people take some small amount of inspiration to question the validity and veracity of what we see in media. Just because it’s on a screen does not make it true. We have an obligation to seek and accept the truth when it’s presented.
That said, one of the most interesting and rewarding parts of writing is learning what readers see in your work that you never saw to begin with.
[SPOILER] For example, I had no idea Cheyenne was pregnant at the end of The Scar Boys – which is the set-up for Scar Girl – until a reader told me. Crazy, right?
That’s really awesome. What a cool thing for readers to know they can impact a story so deeply. I love that!
Looking beyond your novels, are there books you’ve read recently deserves a greater spotlight or changed your life in a meaningful way? What makes it so special?
You don’t have enough space for me to really answer this question, but here are a few that have had an impact:
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely – An honest and difficult look at police treatment of African American men. If ever a book was a conversation starter, it was this one.
The Magus, by John Fowles – I hardly remember what this book is about – other than it was really trippy – but I read it in two days when I had the flu in the mid 1980s. It’s the book I credit with changing me from a casual to a voracious reader.
Ready Player One by Ernie Cline and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, because, well, because. (I’ve read and listened to both.)
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf – It’s the book my mom read to me every night when I was five, and I think it did a lot to shape who I am.
As for recently, I just read The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Conaghan and listened to Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas, both of which were brilliant. Brilliant.
This is a great list, and I want to comment on so many of them. I loved Because You’ll Never Meet Me and JUST bought All American Boys with a Christmas gift card. I will have to check out some of the others you mentioned. Thanks so much for your time!
Fifteen-year-old Jackie Stone is a prisoner in her own house. Everything she says and does 24/7 is being taped and broadcast to every television in America. Why? Because her dad is dying of a brain tumor and he has auctioned his life on eBay to the highest bidder: a ruthless TV reality show executive at ATN.
Gone is her mom’s attention and cooking and parent-teacher conferences. Gone is her sister’s trust ever since she’s been dazzled by the cameras and new-found infamy. Gone is her privacy. Gone is the whole family’s dignity as ATN twists their words and makes a public mockery of their lives on Life and Death. But most of all, Jackie fears that one day very soon her father will just be . . . gone. Armed only with her ingenuity and the power of the internet, Jackie is determined to end the show and reclaim all of their lives, even in death.
I dropped out of NYU film school in the mid 80s to play guitar and write songs for Woofing Cookies. We were a punk-pop four piece — think R.E.M. meets the Ramones — that toured up and down the East Coast, and had two singles and one full-length LP on Midnight Records.
The band broke up in 1987 and I followed my other passion, books. I’ve worked in the book industry ever since. And, of course, I write. And I write, And I write, write, write.
My first novel, The Scar Boys — it’s labeled as Young Adult, but I’ve never really liked labels — published January 2014. It is, not surprisingly, a rock and roll coming of age story. No vampires or dystopian future, just a messed up boy and his guitar. (I have nothing against vampires or dystopian futures. I loved The Passage, The Hunger Games, and The Road.)
