Category Archives: Contemporary

Review: Beyond Clueless by Linas Alsenas

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

Beyond Clueless by Linas AlsenasBeyond Clueless
Linas Alsenas
Harry N. Abrams
Published August 18, 2015

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When Marty learns she’ll be at a different high school than her best friend Jimmy, at first she’s devastated. She fears she and Jimmy will drift apart, and his new distraction with his first boyfriend only seems to prove her right. But Marty finds the perfect solution in a school production of Into the Woods. She finds ways for Jimmy and his new friends to be involved, and even involves her new friend Xiang. But even with the play, Marty feels like everyone has a special someone except her. Then a hunky actor takes an interest in her, and Marty swoons. But Felix pushes Marty in ways she doesn’t expect, and she struggles to figure out whether she needs to catch up with everyone else on the whole romance thing. When her friends express concern, Marty realizes she may have to choose between her new flame and her friends.

I feel like I kind of had a love-hate relationship with this book. I loved Marty’s spunky voice. Her friendship with Jimmy and their shared love of musicals was so sweet. I loved following the awkward transition into high school and the way it changed the relationships in Marty’s life.

On the other hand, I wasn’t a huge fan of these fifteen-year-old kids drinking so casually, and the way older family members provided alcohol to them like it was no big thing. I had a hard time with that. I also struggled with Xiang’s character. On the one hand, she describes this sort of repressive home life where her parents are so controlling that she’s afraid to admit she likes a boy from her youth orchestra group. After all, she reasons, nothing could happen between them anyway; her parents won’t allow it. But she doesn’t seem to have any qualms at all about putting on make-up or changing into clothes her parents wouldn’t approve of once she’s out of the house. And just how is this girl getting cigarettes and keeping them (plus contraband makeup and clothes) hidden in this home where her parents are supposed to be all up in her business? I found those ideas hard to reconcile.

However, I really enjoyed the whole high school production part of the story. I liked that the story included kids participating in the production off-stage as well as the actors. I liked that Marty’s perceptions of people get challenged on a lot of levels. It’s not just her perception of Jimmy’s new friends she has to adjust, but also her beliefs about Felix, the stage manager, even her parents, too. For me, that’s what made the story most enjoyable. Learning that we’re sometimes wrong in how we perceive situations and people around us is something we all have to deal with. I thought that part of Beyond Clueless was really well-done.

If you’re a musical fan or a fan of theater, you may want to add this one to your list.

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Cultural Elements
Marty (white) befriends a Chinese girl at school. Her best friend is gay and dating his first boyfriend.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content
Marty sees some affection between the boys – holding hands, brief kissing. She vaguely wonders if they’re doing more, but never asks. Her friend Xiang briefly described some of her relationship with her boyfriend—hints that they do more than kiss and at one point makes a crude comment about him.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Marty learns that one of her friends punched another boy backstage during her performance.

Drug Content
Marty and her friends (who are all fifteen and sixteen) drink beer provided by older relatives.

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

 

Save

Review: The Devil You Know by Trish Doller

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

The Devil You Know
Trish Doller
Bloomsbury
Published June 20, 2015

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About The Devil You Know
Eighteen-year-old Arcadia wants adventure. Living in a tiny Florida town with her dad and four-year-old brother, Cadie spends most of her time working, going to school, and taking care of her family. So when she meets two handsome cousins at a campfire party, she finally has a chance for fun. They invite her and friend to join them on a road trip, and it’s just the risk she’s been craving-the opportunity to escape. But what starts out as a fun, sexy journey quickly becomes dangerous when she discovers that one of them is not at all who he claims to be. One of them has deadly intentions.

My Review
After meeting Trish Doller at ApollyCon in March, I knew I had to read this book. I loved the idea that it’s set in Florida, but not at the beach, and while it’s a summer story, it’s a whole different kind of tale than the usual Florida vacation! As with Where the Stars Still Shine, the Florida setting is super vivid. As a Florida girl myself, I often nodded along with the descriptions and laughed with Cadie at some of the things the out-of-town boys asked about life in the Sunshine State.

I think my favorite part of the book was the vivid details about Cadie’s memories with her mom, her relationship with her brother and even Noah’s memories. All those little things gave the story so much depth and really made the characters seem real.

There’s definitely a position on the romance angle of the story. Cadie thinks a lot about conversations she’s had with her mom about sex and her own feelings that she shouldn’t feel guilty, that it’s right to do it when she feels read, and that it doesn’t need to be special or limited to one experience.

As far as the rest of the emotional experience of the story—I found myself totally wrapped up in the suspense. I sat down to read for five minutes and didn’t even realize how much time had passed before I’d read five chapters, was late for everything, and had to make myself stop!

If you’re a super sharp cookie, you’ll probably figure out some of the plot before it’s revealed, but even if that’s the case, don’t let that ruin it for you. I was pretty sure from early on about who the good guys and bad guys were, but it didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the read at all. There were enough other reveals and intriguing moments keeping me turning page after page all the way until the end. If I hadn’t needed to stop reading that first session, I probably would have read straight through the entire book right then. As it was, I finished reading the same night.

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are Caucasian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content
Cadie worries that her ex-boyfriend may have shared intimate details about their relationship with his crude twin brother, who makes lewd comments to Cadie about oral sex.

Teens gather at a camp site for a party, where they drink alcohol and go skinny dipping. Cadie takes off her dress, and boys make some crude comments.

Cadie pretty quickly falls for a new boy. They share intense kisses and undress together. Later, she has sex with a boy. At one point, she tries to distract a boy by making him think she wants to have sex with him even though she doesn’t. It’s a desperate move and unclear how far she’s going to make herself go until she can’t do it.

She thinks a lot about sex and resents possible judgment about her choices. She believes she should be able to have sex when she wants without it being a big deal, and recalls her mom’s counsel advising her of this, too.

Spiritual Content
Brief mention of desperate prayer to God or anyone in the Heavens listening.

Violent Content
One boy appears to be the victim of a bullying incident. Cadie finds him naked and tied to a tree in the morning after a party.

References to a drunk fight between a man and his son which caused serious injury to both parties.

Twice people die of gunshot wounds, off-scene. It happens once in-scene. A boy attacks a girl and accuses her of making him hurt her. It’s clear he means her serious harm.

A crocodile grabs a boy.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol while camping and at a party. Reference to a couple Cadie thinks might be smoking pot.

 

Save

Save

Review: It Started with Goodbye by Christina June

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

It Started with Goodbye
Christina June
Blink YA
Published May 9, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When a shopping trip with her best friend and best friend’s boyfriend ends in an arrest for shoplifting, Tatum tries to convince her parents of her innocence. But instead of understanding that Tatum did nothing wrong, that it was all the creepy boyfriend’s fault, Tatum’s dad leaves her under the strict rule of her stepmother. Yay for summer house arrest.

As part of her punishment, Tatum works community service, where a friend challenges her to start her own business doing graphic design. As Tatum explores the possibility, she meets a charming boy looking for a website, and learns she and her stepsister may have something in common after all.

I liked spunky Tatum and the charming and mysterious boy she communicates with via email. The way the relationship unfolded drew me even further into the story. I liked that she ends up with a community of friends around her. I also liked the exploration of the relationship between Tatum and her stepmother. As a member of a blended family, I felt like that relationship read pretty true. Though she eventually comes to respect her stepmom, Tatum is pretty rude at different points in the story. She does regret her behavior later.

I thought it was cool to feature a character with interest in graphic design, especially one as entrepreneurial as Tatum. It added an interesting flavor to the story. Overall, this is a clean book and a light read. Fans of A Week of Mondays by Jessica Brody will appreciate Tatum’s quirkiness and wild attempts to fix things. The story might also appeal to readers who enjoyed That’s Not Hay in My Hair by Juliette Turner.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Most characters are straight and white. Tatum’s step-family (mom, sister, grandmother) are Chilean.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

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

 

Review: The Lost and the Found by Cat Clarke

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

The Lost and the Found
Cat Clarke
Crown Books
September 23, 2016 (Originally published April 23, 2015)

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About The Lost and the Found
THE LOST
When six-year-old Laurel Logan was abducted, the only witness was her younger sister, Faith. Since then, Faith’s childhood has revolved around her sister’s disappearance—from her parents’ broken marriage and the constant media attention, to dealing with so-called friends who only ever want to talk about her missing sister.

THE FOUND
Now, thirteen years later, a young woman is found in the front yard of the Logans’ old house, disoriented and clutching the teddy bear Laurel was last seen with. Can her sister finally be back? Faith always dreamed of her sister coming home; she just never believed it would happen. But soon a disturbing series of events leaves Faith increasingly isolated from her family and paranoid about her sister’s motives. Before long, Faith begins to wonder if it’s the abduction that’s changed her sister, or if it’s something else. . . .

My Review
I feel like it’s going to be difficult to talk about this book without spoilers because so many of the things that made it really fascinating were the twists I didn’t see coming. There’s a creepy element that has absolutely nothing to do with Laurel’s past, which I thought was not only really well-executed in terms of how eerie it was, but also how unexpected and yet it made sense.

It took me a couple of chapters to really decide I liked Faith. On the whole she’s the good girl who has been largely invisible to her family since her sister’s disappearance. Which in and of itself was an interesting paradox, right? I loved her relationship with her almost-step-dad Michel. He seemed to really get her and had the capacity to draw her out. In some ways it seemed like they were both outsiders watching people they loved caught up in the grief of losing a daughter.

Toward the end, Faith makes a difficult decision that I really struggled to accept. I felt like it was deeply unhealthy and didn’t agree at all with her methods of justifying it to herself. She wanted to believe she was ultimately doing a kinder thing, but I felt like she should realize what a lie it was based on her perceptions of the rest of her family members. I know that’s vague. I don’t want to give the story away. But that was kind of disappointing to me. I prefer to think that eventually she changed her mind and came forward with the truth.

I’ve read a couple of other “abducted child returns” stories before– The Tension of Opposites, The Deep End of the Ocean, Aftermath, and the duo Face on the Milk Carton and Whatever Happened to Janie?— and I think this one is the most unique in its exploration of what it’d be like to experience a long-lost sister return. If you like any of the books I listed above, you will want to check this one out as well.

You can also find my interview with author Cat Clarke here.

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Faith and her family are white. Her dad is bisexual and after he and Faith’s mom divorced, he began a relationship with a Frenchman.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kisses between Faith and her boyfriend as well as some displays of affection between Faith’s dad and his boyfriend. Faith had sex with her boyfriend for the first time the night before the story begins. She reflects on it a couple of times during the story and has sex with him again in her room while her parents are out. It’s briefly described—largely because her mind is elsewhere, so it’s kind of this weird experience for her.

She comments early in the book that having sex with her boyfriend was “the right thing” because she loves him.

Though Laurel doesn’t graphically describe her experiences in captivity, it’s clear she was sexually abused. It’s mostly hinted at and not explicitly described, but especially sensitive readers may find even these references too much.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to physical and sexual abuse.

Drug Content
Faith attends a birthday party where she and a friend sneak drinks of wine until fairly intoxicated.

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

 

Review: The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia

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

The Lovely Reckless
Kami Garcia
MacMillan / Imprint
Published October 4, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

After her boyfriend’s death, Frankie Devereaux spirals. A drunk-driving conviction lands her at her dad’s house, responsible for community service and public school for the first time. As she fights vicious flashbacks to Noah’s death, Frankie desperately tries to remember the face of the man who killed him. The last thing Frankie needs is Marco Leone, a dangerous racer with a larger-than-life reputation. Frankie resists the pull she feels, but when she learns who Marco truly is, she knows she can’t simply walk away from him. She’s left with a terrible choice which could destroy them both—or save them.

The rich-girl-meets-bad-boy story has been told again and again, but never has it featured a heroine as complex as Frankie. Her PTSD drives Frankie deeper into anger, depression, and risk-taking behaviors, but her new situation at school teaches her about friendship, trust, and forgiveness. Though ultimately, this is a love story about a girl recovering from trauma and a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, it’s also about finding courage to face fear, to stand up for others, and to believe in the value of life and love.

The title comes from a song written by Frankie’s best friend’s dad, a rock star whose life ended in a tragic drug overdose. I liked the way it pulled together Frankie and Marco’s story but also the things her best friend Abel was experiencing in the wake of his father’s unexpected death.

The Lovely Reckless deals with a lot of heavy things. Sometimes Frankie seems really negative, but considering all she’d been through, I felt like this fit her character. It also showed the transformation she began to experience as she got to know Marco and Cruz, another driver at school, and had to decide whether to open herself up to them. Side note: Cruz might have been my favorite character. I loved her frankness and loyalty. Everyone needs a best friend like Cruz!

In some ways, I feel like this book is perfect for fans of The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. It has that same sort of us versus them setting in the way Garcia describes the Heights and the Downs. It has some of the same sense of romance and desperation. So I guess it’d be more like if The Outsiders was told from the point-of-view of Cherry Valance. Okay, probably not many people will follow me there. That’s okay. Cherry was the up-town girl the boys talked with who seemed pretty all right.

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Frankie, Lex, and Abel are Caucasian. Frankie falls for Marco, a Latino street racer, and befriends Cruz, a Latina racer.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content
Frankie has some brief memories of her relationship with her former boyfriend—kissing him and how he never pressured her for more than she was comfortable with.

She shares some passionate kisses with a boy. In one scene, she removes her top. In another, it seems like they might have sex, but she asks him to stop.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Frankie suffers flashbacks to the night she saw her boyfriend beaten to death. The descriptions are pretty short, but graphic.

She witnesses two boys fighting at school.

Drug Content
Frankie gets pulled over for drunk driving. She ends up with community service and a suspended license. Later, she goes to a party and gets very drunk before wandering into the street in a dangerous part of town. Marco comes to school drunk and ready to pick a fight. Frankie’s best friend Abel’s dad died of a drug overdose and his mom is addicted to prescription drugs.

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

Save

Review: Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, , , , ,

Three Times Lucky
Sheila Turnage
Dial Books
Published May 10, 2012

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Mo LoBeau, rising sixth grader in the tiny town of Tupelo Landing, turns detective when a local man turns up murdered. Mo and her best friend Dale figure they can locate the killer before that nosy outsider detective has time to finish his lunch at the café. After all, Mo already has experience searching for things, most particularly her “Upstream Mother” who set Mo on a raft and sent her down the river to the Colonel and Miss Lana as a baby. Mo and Dale follow clue after clue in the murder investigation, even as a hurricane barrels toward them. When Mo’s guardians disappear, she realizes she must find the killer before he adds the people she loves most to his body count.

I’ve had this book on my bookshelf for a ridiculously long time, and I’m only sorry I didn’t read it sooner. I absolutely loved it. Three Times Lucky is all the things you want in a Southern Story: interesting food, quirky characters, an adorable small town, and an unforgettable narrator. I loved the entire cast of characters. The mystery unraveled at a perfect pace. The story was equal parts humor and heart. The setting felt like a place you would recognize the minute you stepped out of your car.

This is a perfect read for middle or late elementary-aged readers. It would make a great story to read aloud or listen to on a family vacation. Definitely a must-read and one of my favorites this year.

Recommended for Ages 8 up.

Cultural Elements
Tupelo Landing, the setting of the story, is a small very Southern town peppered with quirky Southern people. The cast reminded me a little bit of the townspeople in To Kill a Mockingbird or Lucky Strikes.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None. Mo does note that Dale swears, and comments that the way things are going, she might start anytime, but no curse words are printed in the story.

Romance/Sexual Content
Mo adores Dale’s older brother Lavender and teases him about marrying her someday. He and his buddy spend some time with twin girls, but Dale and Mo seem pretty oblivious to anything that really happens between them.

Spiritual Content
The local pastor agrees to hold a funeral at the church for a man even though he never attended services there. Brief references to prayer.

Mo writes letters to her Upstream Mother—the woman she believes gave birth to her and then set her on a raft and placed her in the river, where the Colonel later found her.

Violent Content
When Dale’s father gets drunk, he gets violent, and hits Dale and his mother. Mo knows about it because she sees the fallout, but she doesn’t witness it happen. At one point she does witness Dale’s dad threatening to hurt him.

Mo stumbles onto a murder weapon (the victim died of blunt force trauma.) Later, as they search for a kidnapping victim, Mo and Dale discover a bloody handprint.

Drug Content
Dale’s dad gets drunk on multiple occasions. At one point Mo and Dale see him driving and worry that he may be driving drunk.