Category Archives: Young Adult/Teen 12-18

Review: Off the Page by Jodi Picoult

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

Off the Page by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van LeerOff the Page
Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer
Delacorte Press

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Delilah and Oliver can finally be together in the real world. But in order to maintain Oliver’s presence, Edgar had to take his place in the fairytale story where Oliver really belongs. As Oliver struggles to acclimate to the new and unfamiliar setting outside his story, he must impersonate Edgar well enough to fool Edgar’s mother and to fit in at school. When another portal between the story and the real world opens, two more characters swap for real life counterparts, leaving Delilah and Oliver to untangle the mess. For both of them, one thing is certain: they must find a happily-ever-after solution for their entire cast.

While Off the Page is cute, a few of the plot twists didn’t resonate well with the story, to me. Though Oliver finds a way to exit the fairytale, he’s not a real boy. Punch him, and he’ll bleed ink, not blood. It seemed like at some point this would have to be addressed if he were to intend to spend the rest of his life outside the confines of the book. Also, the swap – a real human boy for a prince in a fairytale – is uneven. A boy gives up an entire life for confinement in a story so that a high school girl can have a life with the boy she’s in love with? What does the story’s new protagonist get out of the exchange? It seems like living in a book would get terrifically old after a while. Other than a few plot wrinkles, the story progresses smoothly, and true love is found by all the essential characters. True to its promise, the tale delivers its happily-ever-after for nearly everyone.

Honestly, I really didn’t care for Delilah very much, and Oliver was hit and miss for me. I loved Jules and Edgar (though his name kept tripping me up. I kept thinking of the butler from Disney’s Aristocats. I know, my daughter was recently in a musical performance, so it’s probably just me.) I really wanted the story to be more about them, and I felt like the end sort of cheated each of them. There were some side characters – Socks, Humphrey, and Frump – that really made things entertaining. Over all, I liked the story of Off the Page. It didn’t blow me away, but I wasn’t sorry I read it.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing, lying next to each other on a bed.

Spiritual Content
References to fate. There are a couple of passages that compare the living characters in the story Delilah loves to real people – one commenting that we all have an author. Nothing more specific than that.

Violent Content
One boy punches another boy in the face. Reference to a dog getting hit by a car.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Finding Hope by Colleen Nelson

Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Finding Hope
Colleen Nelson
Dundurn

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Sixteen year-old Hope is trapped in a small town as her family wrestles with her brother’s addiction to crystal meth. After her mom pushes her to apply for a prestigious boarding school over an hour away, she’s shocked to discover she’s been accepted. There’s only one problem: if she moves away, how will her brother, Eric, survive on the street without the money and food she regularly slips to him? When Eric learns Hope has gone away to school, he follows her to the city. Unfortunately, his inner demons only torment him harder as he draws nearer to the memories that pushed his former life completely off the rails. He turns to Hope for help, but she has her own battles to fight, and for the first time, she may not be able to save him from himself.

Though Finding Hope is described as being about Hope, I kind of felt like Eric stole the show. This sort of echoes the way Hope’s family operates, where Eric is the squeaky wheel, the one who requires a lot of intervention and causes a lot of tension, and Hope sort of goes quietly unnoticed. I felt a little disappointed that the novel kind of went the same way. She has her own crisis to manage, but even that sort of took a back seat to Eric’s unfolding drama.

One thing I really liked was the role her poetry played in the story. I liked that she crafted poems during intense situations and that she used them to communicate with her brother. I also loved the way her writing impulses escalated to her scrawling the lines on her own body. I felt that increased pressure and that sort of coming-unglued feeling right along with her in those moments.

I wished I’d gotten to see more of her relationship with Devon as it unfolded. I felt like we got snippets of her email exchanges, but not enough to make me feel like I understood or believed in the relationship.

The story resolves many of the big issues raised, some more easily than others. Again, Hope’s troubles sort of take a backseat to Eric’s. Things unwind pretty quickly, and true to its title, the tale leaves readers with the sense that the worst is over, and better days are ahead for Hope and her family.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used moderately throughout the book. Most of the profanity is in the sections from Eric’s point-of-view.

Romance/Sexual Content
Girls at Hope’s new school dare each other to walk through the hall naked or send photos of their breasts to boys from another school. A man encourages a boy to watch pornography. One character reveals memories of abuse. The memories are choppy, it’s not a play-by-play reveal of events, but there are some graphic, intense descriptions, including one describing coerced oral sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Eric injures his hand during a robbery.

Drug Content
Eric is addicted to crystal meth. The addiction is clearly destroying his life and relationships with his family. He’s living on the street, depending on handouts from guilt-ridden or sympathetic family members and strangers.

Note: I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

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Top Ten Books on my Spring TBR List

Lists, News and Fun, Young Adult/Teen 12-18,

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a list of the hottest books on my To Be Read List for this spring. I’m not sure if this means books coming out this spring I can’t wait to read or books I am most eager to read in the next couple of months, so I’m going to include both, because I’m a rebel like that.

Books Actually Coming Out This Spring That I’m Crazy Eager to Read

 

1. The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater: This series is probably my guiltiest pleasure. I review a pretty broad range of YA here on The Story Sanctuary, but I don’t often make my way through every book in an entire series (notable exceptions: The Tales of Goldstone Wood by Ann Elisabeth Stengl and The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.) but Stiefvater’s writing has held me captive. Also, dude. I NEED Blue and Gansey to kiss. Seriously must have this. Except not keen on the part where he’s supposed to die after. So… fingers crossed for a loophole there! Also, Ronan. <3 <3 <3

2. Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare: Okay, so I may have fallen disastrously far behind in reading The Mortal Instruments (see above note about series reading…) but I’m excited to get into this one. I’ve heard great things about it from other bloggers oh-so-fortunate as to get review copies, and I’ve already got me a glossy new ebook version which I can’t wait to get into.

3. The Siren’s Song by Mary Weber: Apparently I should take back my above comment about series reading, because here’s another series I might actually finish! Yay! I’ve enjoyed the story world and characters of the first two books, and I’m super excited to see how things play out in the final chapter. (Thanks, BookLook Bloggers for my review copy!)

4. King’s Folly by Jill Williamson: I’ve read several books by Jill Williamson, but this one is bound to be something special. It’s a return to a beloved story world Williamson created in the Blood of Kings series, which I read long long ago. Okay, maybe not THAT long ago. But long enough in the past to justify intense nostalgia. So I’m excited for this one.

5. Remember to Forget by Ashley Royer: This is a contemporary YA novel about a boy recovering from the tragic loss of his girlfriend. I’ve been on a bit of a roll with reading stories about grief and trauma lately, and apparently I just haven’t had enough. I’m a huge fan of Laura Anderson Kurk, and the premise of Remember to Forget reminds me a teeny bit of Glass Girl. I’m always nervous to compare a new author with a fav, so hopefully that goes well.

Books That I Want to Push to the Top of My TBR Pile When No One Is Looking

 

6. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys: Sometimes I feel like the only person who hasn’t yet read this book. I’ve seen SO. MANY. amazing reviews of this book. I wouldn’t list historical fiction among my favorite genres, but when I stop and think about it, I’ve liked almost every historical YA novel I’ve read, so I should probably reevaluate that.

7. Pax by Sarah Pennypacker: Don’t judge me, but seriously every time I see the cover of this book, I REALLY want to drop whatever else I’m doing and immediately start reading it. I’m not usually a huge fan of books told from the POV of animals (she said, despite the fact that she LOVED The Underneath by Kathy Appelt) but there’s something really compelling to me about this sweet story about a boy and his pet fox.

8. Bone Gap by Laura Ruby: This is another book that I feel like everyone else has read and raved about. I’ve got my very own copy, but it continues to languish while I read all these other books demanding reviews in a timely manner. Boo. Bone Gap, I will read you soon!!!

9. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: Because I really can’t resist a good fantasy series, and I hear really good things about this one. I think I have both the ebook and audiobook versions of this novel, so I really have no excuse for not diving right in. Maybe this week…

10. Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky: If you’re not familiar, this was originally a serial fan-fiction in which Harry is a Ravenclaw from a Ravenclaw family. So his approach to problems stems from a much more rational, methodical outlook, and of course, that alters much of the story. You can read it here. My husband RAVES about this probably at least once per week. We once agreed that if he read my favorite book (To Kill a Mockingbird. Yep.), I would read this one. I still have time because he’s only actually read the first chapter of TKaM, and by read, I mean he listened to me read it to him. But still. Promises and such.

 

 

Review: Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

Belzhar
Meg Wolitzer
Dutton Books for Young Readers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When Jam can’t recover from her boyfriend’s death, her desperate family sends her to The Wooden Barn, a boarding school for distraught teens. There Jam finds herself enrolled in Special Topics in English, an elite, invitation-only course. This year, Jam and her classmates will study the works of Sylvia Plath, and will write about their own experiences in special journals given to them by their fascinating instructor, Mrs. Quenell.

As Jam begins to write in her journal, she’s transported to a place where Reeve still lives, and they can be together. A place she calls Belzhar. As the semester winds down, and the pages of Jam’s journal fill, she knows her visits with Reeve can’t last forever, and the end of them will be like losing him all over again. But she can’t run from the truth forever. And this time, as she faces her beloved Reeve, she has to face truths about him and about herself before she can find healing.

I’m pretty sure I read about this book on a list of a blogger’s favorite books or something of that nature. I think at that point, I had recently read the Bell Jar, and I was even more curious about the story because it references Plath’s work. Since then, it’s been on my to-read list, and at last, I’ve finally read it.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed. There were definitely things I liked about the story – I loved the teacher and the other classmates in the Special Topics class, even if I felt like they deserved a little more airtime. Besides the span in which they told their own stories, I didn’t really feel like I got to know them very well. Which is okay – it really wasn’t the point of the story.

There’s a big twist that I won’t give away, but I had really mixed feelings about it. On the one hand I was really surprised when the truth was revealed. I didn’t suspect it, and yet when I evaluated earlier scenes in the story, it changed how I perceived them, which I think is a mark of a great plot twist. So that was impressive.

On the other hand, I felt like it kind of cheapened the story in a way. I’m not sure I really bought into the real story having the kind of weight I felt like it needed to have. I felt like it kind of took this big conflict and deflated it a little bit.

On the other-other hand, I think the way it played out also felt like a tribute to the way emotional trauma can be devastating and powerful. So I don’t want to downplay it too much.

There was also one moment in which a big thing happens, and Jam isn’t there. I really wanted her to be there for this one critical moment, and instead she hears about it third-hand. So that was a bit disappointing.

On the whole, I’m glad I read it, but it didn’t resonate with me the way some of my other recent reads have. If you’re looking for something that’s a much lighter version of Girl, Interrupted (I’m thinking the movie with Winona Ryder), then this is probably something you want to check out.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency. One character in particular has a bit of a foul mouth, but the language is kind of sprinkled throughout the story.

Romance/Sexual Content
There’s some kissing between Jam and a boyfriend. They reach under each other’s shirts and touch each other. At one point they remove shirts and lie next to each other.

Spiritual Content
Through writing in a journal, Jam is transported to a place she calls Belzhar. There, Reeve is alive, and they are together. The place has rules – she can only relive past moments, nothing new, and after a period of time, she’ll be booted back to reality.

Violent Content
Brief mentions of a drunk driving accident which leaves a girl paralyzed, a boy who has been kidnapped, and a devastating fire.

Drug Content
Jam recalls going to a party at which several teens drink alcohol. Several mentions of smoking pot.

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Top Ten Controversial Characters

Lists, News and Fun, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,
Top Ten Tuesday is a Weekly Meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is controversial characters. These are characters I loved, but everyone hated, or I hated, when everyone else loved. So I’ve split my list into my top five from each category.

Controversial Characters Part One: Top Five Characters I Couldn’t Get Into, but People Rave About

Heathcliff/Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – I remember reading this book in high school and wishing I could drop into the story and be like, Catherine, honey. Lose this guy, please! I just did not get the fascination with him. He seemed dangerous and violent, and I definitely thought she could do better. But a lot of people seem to think of him as one of the top romantic heroes ever. So maybe it’s just me?

Mal/The Grisha Series by Leigh Bardugo – I didn’t start the Grisha series until after falling head-over-heels in love with Six of Crows, also set in the Grisha world. I tried Shadow and Bone soon after, and to be honest, I just couldn’t get into it. I could not understand why Alina pined for Mal. Sure, he’s a childhood friend, but he just seemed, I don’t know. Too immature for her. I was pretty excited when the Darkling was introduced, but er… yeah. That’s not going where I’d hoped, either. Can’t win ’em all I guess!

Aspen/The Selection Series by Kiera Cass – Okay. This one is a tough one for me, too. I’m Team Maxon all the way. I don’t know what the holdup is. Aspen seems like a selfish jerk to me. (Caveat: I’ve only read the first two books so far.) He doesn’t seem to care that America could be severely punished if she’s caught with him. He really only thinks about his own feelings for her. I’m not a fan.

Mare/The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard – I REALLY wanted to like this book so much. It was okay. There were things about it I did enjoy. But I found it really difficult to connect with Mare. She complains a LOT about the way the upper class Silvers treat her lower class Reds, but at the beginning, who is she stealing from? That’s right! Her own people! Uhhhh…..???? I had a hard time respecting her convictions. Plus, dude. The way she treated her childhood bestie? (Sorry, I forget his name.) I was like come on, please let him be his own man already. Grrr.

Bella/Twilight by Stephanie Meyer – This one might not be quite fair. I liked Bella okay for the first few Twilight books. It really wasn’t until the last one in which she sort of stops having any weakness ever that I kind of wished I was reading a story about Jacob and this tribe instead. (And I was largely Team Edward prior to that.)

Controversial Characters Part Two: Top Five Disliked Characters I Loved

Noah Falls/Away We Go by Emil Ostrovski – As I’ve worked up my own review to this book, which I really enjoyed, I’ve read some other reviews that were far less favorable, many because they expected the book to be a dystopian adventure about finding a cure to the fatal Peter Pan Virus, when in fact, it’s more a personal story about the way a terminal diagnosis affects a group of teens largely cut off from the rest of the world. Whatever the case, I loved Noah and spent so many pages rooting for him to find his way.

Ed Kennedy/I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak – It seems like many people take issue with the ending of this book, which isn’t quite the same as the character, but I really love Ed. I love that he’s kind of this unlikely hero who’s sort of clumsy in love and life and really at a loss as to how to find his place until the mysterious cards show up in his life.

Shinobu/Seeker Series by Arwen Elys Dayton – This is another book that had some really strange twists and turns in it. Shinobu’s story isn’t without its own darkness, but it has probably the most hilarious suicide attempt I’ve ever read. That sounds weird. Yeah, it’s as weird as it sounds. But I laughed out loud. Not in a cruel way. Just… oh, nevermind. It was supposed to be funny, and that humor juxtaposed against the seriousness of his death wish was, for me, somehow endearing.

Clarice/Mistwood and Nightspell by Leah Cypess – You know those really snarky characters who turn out to move the story along in unexpected ways? Clarice is like that for me. I loved her in Mistwood and was delighted that she also appeared in Nightspell. She’s sneaky and conniving, but fiercely loyal, which definitely endeared me to her.

Nell Golden/We Are the Goldens by Dana Reinhardt – Again, looking at reviews, it seems like the end is the point people gripe about with this book. I actually loved that it ended the way it did. That moment was Nell’s triumph, her facing down the huge unspeakable thing she spends the entire story working up to. I think really understanding her character helps the ending make sense. Also, as a sister myself, I can identify with the worry for a sister and the grief over the changing level of closeness. Sister relationships aren’t like any other. I’d have just as a hard a time as Nell, I think, were my sister to go through something like hers did.

Who are your best loved or most hated characters from literature? Do other readers seem to agree or disagree with you?

Review: Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Seven Ways We Lie
Riley Redgate
ABRAMS Kids/Amulet Books

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Everyone has a secret to hide. Olivia seems like a girl who has it together. She knows what she wants, and she’s not afraid to say so. At home, she watches her father and sister sink deeper into isolation following her mom’s disappearance, and for once, there’s nothing Olivia can do to fix it. Matt’s parents never stop fighting, and his little brother too often ends up caught in the cross-fire. After months of tuning out his parents’ battles in a haze of pot smoke, is it too late for Matt to confront them? Claire can’t let go of the last words her now ex-boyfriend said to her: you can’t compare—to what? To whom? Haunted by what he could have meant, Claire spirals into ever-growing bitterness and envy of her best friends, Olivia and Juniper. Everyone thinks Lucas is the smiley, happy guy he appears. But underneath the shiny grin, he’s cracking in two. When he accidentally reveals his secret to a boy from school, he’s sure it won’t be long until everyone else knows.

When rumors of a teacher/student affair circulate at the high school, it becomes clear that someone has an even bigger secret. When Olivia and her friends discover who it is, they’ll have to decide: do they go to administration and expose the lovers, or do they have a responsibility to handle it differently? After all, everyone has secrets.

The dialogue in this book was extremely realistic. It felt as though I were reading a transcript of high schoolers talking to one another. I liked the complex characters. From the get-go, there were certain ones I didn’t think I would like (Lucas and Matt because of the drug issues), and Redgate really won me over, made me see past the behavioral issues I disagreed with. (I still am not a fan of those choices, but I grew to see them as more than a stoner and a pot supplier.)

I thought it was interesting that she explored a lot of different approaches to relationships and sexuality within the novel. One girl has a relationship in which she doesn’t have sex with her boyfriend. Another girl doesn’t do relationships, just casual sex (more on this in a minute.) One boy wrestles with his identity as a pansexual. Another seems to have no feelings of attraction for anyone of any gender. So it definitely communicated the idea that everyone is different and should be respected regardless of those differences.

Olivia’s casual sex mantra is one of the themes I’ve seen often in YA novels. She makes all the usual arguments for her choices—she’s master of her body, boys get to sleep around without anyone villainizing them, she should get to do what she wants without anyone treating her poorly for it.

I agree that she deserves respect regardless of her decisions and that no one has a right to bully or slander her. I found it interesting that despite the very feminist song she sings, as we follow Olivia’s story, we discover that it’s not really feminist principles motivating her behavior. She’s avoiding relationships in the wake of her mother’s abandoning the family. One-night stands avoid the emotional entanglements that Olivia feels will leave her vulnerable to additional hurt. As she begins to heal and grieve the loss of her mother, Olivia finds herself ready to enter a relationship and risk the hurt which might result from a longer-term encounter with a boy. I found that transition interesting.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Sexual Content
Olivia chooses to have casual, one-night experiences with boys at her school. A lot of kids make fun of her and call her rude names in response. She remains unrepentant about her choices and angry that some boys treat her poorly. Boys, she reasons, don’t get treated poorly because they sleep around. Why should girls?

There aren’t any scenes describing her escapades. We know about them and we hear some of the slurs students fling at Olivia. In one instance, a boy sends her a picture of his penis via text message. She is disgusted with his uninvited photo.

Another student wrestles with coming out to his friends at school, including his ex-girlfriend, who might not appreciate finding out that he’s pansexual, can have feelings for a person of any gender.

Two boys kiss at one point.

A teacher is accused of having a sexual relationship with a student. See below for more details…

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
Matt spends a great deal of his time smoking pot. Lucas sells pot and beer to kids at school. Juniper drinks alcohol pretty heavily. One girl ends up with alcohol poisoning at a party. There are no real consequences to the pot smoking and selling in the story.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

SPOILER ALERT

A teacher is accused of having a relationship with a student. The two have not had sex, and met under circumstances in which the teacher thought the student was an adult. In one scene, they kiss and fall asleep in each other’s arms. Eventually the teacher comes forward and admits to having the relationship and the breach of responsibility and judgment that allowed the relationship to occur. The student’s parents are furious and demand the teacher sever contact, which the teacher agrees to. The student hopes that after graduation, the two will be in contact again.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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