Category Archives: Contemporary

Review: Fat Girl on a Plane by Kelly deVos

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

Fat Girl on a Plane by Kelly deVosFat Girl on a Plane
Kelly deVos
Harlequin Teen
Published on June 5, 2018

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About Fat Girl on a Plane
FAT.

High school senior Cookie Vonn’s post-graduation dreams include getting out of Phoenix, attending Parsons and becoming the next great fashion designer. But in the world of fashion, being fat is a cardinal sin. It doesn’t help that she’s constantly compared to her supermodel mother—and named after a dessert.

Thanks to her job at a fashion blog, Cookie scores a trip to New York to pitch her portfolio and appeal for a scholarship, but her plans are put on standby when she’s declared too fat to fly. Forced to turn to her BFF for cash, Cookie buys a second seat on the plane. She arrives in the city to find that she’s been replaced by the boss’s daughter, a girl who’s everything she’s not—ultrathin and superrich. Bowing to society’s pressure, she vows to lose weight, get out of the friend zone with her crush, and put her life on track.

SKINNY.

Cookie expected sunshine and rainbows, but nothing about her new life is turning out like she planned. When the fashion designer of the moment offers her what she’s always wanted—an opportunity to live and study in New York—she finds herself in a world full of people more interested in putting women down than dressing them up. Her designs make waves, but her real dream of creating great clothes for people of all sizes seems to grow more distant by the day.

Will she realize that she’s always had the power to make her own dreams come true?

My Review
I want to say the thing this book does best is give this 360 degree look at the way the world treats people based on their weight. The truth is, it does an amazing job at exposing these sometimes ugly truths, but the writing and the characters are also pretty spectacular.

Cookie is a strong woman. She’s competent, capable, and talented. But she’s not perfect. Wounded by prejudices she’s experienced, she allows herself to judge others based on the same system she abhors being applied to herself. Ultimately she learns that achieving her weight goal doesn’t change everything in the way she expected. Turns out being skinny isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, either.

I want to say so many things that would spoil the story because they were elements or plot moments that I thought were fantastic. Early on we’re told this isn’t a Cinderella story about a girl who loses weight and lives happily ever after, and it’s true—this is not that story. It’s much more about a girl looking for the path to her best self and her best life. That journey changes her inside even more than it changes her outside. And perhaps above all, that’s the story’s real power.

You know me—I wish Fat Girl on a Plane didn’t have some of the sexual stuff or profanity in it that it does, because those simply aren’t the things I enjoy reading. See the content information below for more details. I thought the characters and story were powerful and nicely done, though.

Recommended for Ages 18 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white. For half the book, Cookie is overweight. The other half of the book shows moments from her weight loss journey and more significantly, the difference in the way people treat her at her different sizes.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Infrequent use of extreme profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between man and woman. Two relatively brief scenes showing sex but including some details.

Spiritual Content
Cookie attends some church events. (I loved the conversations with the priest in the story—he’s a funny, practical guy.)

Violent Content
Two young men get into a fist fight. Cookie experiences some bullying, cruelty, and some unwanted sexual comments.

Drug Content
Cookie drinks alcohol in a couple of scenes. In one instance, she’s overseas and over the legal drinking age.

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

 

Review: Breakout by Kate Messner

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

Breakout
Kate Messner
Bloomsbury
Published on June 5, 2018

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About Breakout

Nora Tucker is looking forward to summer vacation in Wolf Creek–two months of swimming, popsicles, and brushing up on her journalism skills for the school paper. But when two inmates break out of the town’s maximum security prison, everything changes. Doors are locked, helicopters fly over the woods, and police patrol the school grounds. Worst of all, everyone is on edge, and fear brings out the worst in some people Nora has known her whole life. Even if police catch the inmates, she worries that home might never feel the same.

Told in letters, poems, text messages, news stories, and comics–a series of documents Nora collects for the Wolf Creek Community Time Capsule Project–BREAKOUT is a thrilling story that will leave readers thinking about who’s really welcome in the places we call home.

My Review

I’ve read several books lately that show racism and its pervasiveness in schools and communities. BREAKOUT did an amazing job showing what might be called more subtle racism—things where you might at first dismiss the incident as not a big deal or the result of some oversensitivity. The storytelling peels back those layers of indifference and shows the harmful, ugly truth. Telling the story through Nora’s and Elidee’s letters, text messages, poetry, and recorded conversations created the feel of a candid view into the small community.

There are so many things I like about BREAKOUT. Elidee’s poetry and her admiration for Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jacqueline Woodson. Lizzie’s parody news articles. The fact that we get Nora’s perspective as the prison superintendent’s daughter and Elidee’s as the sister of an inmate. I love that the book also includes a reading list of other books on these topics, from books for young readers to texts more appropriate for teen readers.

While the social issues are a solid, important part of the story, at its core, this is a tale of three girls who learn what it is to be friends. To take chances, to trust one another, to forgive, to put themselves in the other girls’ shoes. All those reasons make BREAKOUT a great read.

Content Notes for Breakout

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Nora and Lizzie are from a small, rural, mostly white town (except for the prison, where a majority of the prisoners are black.). Elidee is black and new to the town. Two inmates from the prison escape: one black, one white. The story shows instances of racism and prejudice—most are fairly subtle, like one store owner only enforcing a rule about backpacks being held on the counter when a black customer enters the store.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Nora, Lizzie, and Elidee and their families all help at a church volunteer event making a ham supper for the officers searching for the escaped inmates. They’re all part of the church community.

Violent Content
Teachers rush Nora and her friends inside a school building when officers announce that the escaped inmates are nearby. Accusations emerge stating that some officers physically harm prisoners. A young man is killed trying to evade police. (Nora and her friends don’t witness any of that.)

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of BREAKOUT in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links which do not cost you anything to use but which help support this blog.

Review: The Opposite of Here by Tara Altebrando

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

The Opposite of Here
Tara Altebrando
Bloomsbury
Published on June 5, 2018

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About The Opposite of Here
Natalie’s parents are taking her and her three best friends on a cruise for her seventeenth birthday. A sail-a-bration, they call it. But it’s only been a few short months since Natalie’s boyfriend died in a tragic accident, and she wants to be anywhere but here.
Then she meets a guy on the first night and sparks fly. After a moonlit conversation on a secluded deck of the ship, Natalie pops down to her cabin to get her swimsuit so they can go for a dip. But when she returns, he’s gone. Something he said makes her think he might have . . . jumped? No, he couldn’t have.
But why do her friends think she’s crazy for wanting to make sure he’s okay? Also, why do they seem to be hiding something from her? And how can she find him when she doesn’t even know his name? Most importantly, why is the captain on the intercom announcing the urgent need for a headcount?
With her signature thrilling storytelling, the author of The Leaving and The Possible explores our vulnerability to the power of suggestion-and the lies we tell others and ourselves-in a twisting, Hitchcock-inspired mystery with high stakes and dark secrets.

My Review
I had no idea when I requested this book for review that it would be so timely! My family has decided to view some Hitchcock movies for our weekly family movie nights this summer, so I was super excited when I realized this story incorporates some of that famous Hitchcock suspense/sense of weird. The way things would happen and be… off… really reminded me of a Hitchcock movie.

While Natalie’s grief over her boyfriend’s death feels very real, the story doesn’t idolize him. Natalie discovers some uncomfortable truths about herself, her boyfriend and the relationship, which the story forces her to confront through the mystery surrounding the new boy she meets.

Twists and turns abound in The Opposite of Here. Every time I thought I had things figured out, the story turned on its head. Even things which seem trivial or unrelated often played an important role—which only added to that dense, old-movie vibe I love!

My only complaint is in the attitude of the girls, who all seem to approach the cruise as a great place to have these one-night or one-week romantic encounters because that’s what a good time looks like. This is not a story about celebrating the importance of girl friends or even moving on from grief to a new love. The total confidence and prowess of the girls didn’t resonate with me.

On the whole, I enjoyed the book and recommend it to older suspense lovers as a nice beach or poolside read this summer. See below for more content information.

Recommended for Ages 13 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Infrequent use of strong profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Natalie’s friends tell her the cruise is a great place to forget about life on the mainland (including relationships) and get physically involved with someone new, just for the duration of the trip. One scene described Natalie kissing a boy and it’s clear they have sex, but it happens between scenes, so there’s no description.

Spiritual Content
At times Natalie imagines her boyfriend who has died watching her in the clouds, commenting on her choices.

Violent Content
Natalie worries that someone fell overboard. A brief description of a girl who drowned in a pool and other suspicious deaths. A boy falls off a balcony to land on a lower floor.

Drug Content
The girls take advantage of the fact that one of them is over 18 and can order alcohol. They drink beers together.

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

 

Review: The Universe is Expanding and So Am I by Carolyn Mackler

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

The Universe is Expanding and So Am I
Carolyn Mackler
Bloomsbury
Published on June 5, 2018

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About The Universe is Expanding and So Am I
Virginia Shreves’ world implodes again in this long-awaited follow-up to Printz Honoree The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things.

Sixteen-year-old Virginia Shreves’ life is finally back on course: she’s accepted who she is inside and out and is rebuilding her relationship with brother Byron, whose date-rape charge shattered everything.

But just as she adjusts to her new normal, her world turns upside down again. Sparks with boyfriend Froggy fade, her best friend bombshells bad news, and then the police arrest Byron. As Virginia struggles to cope, she meets Sebastian, an artist with his own baggage. The pair vow not to share personal drama. But secrets have a way of coming out, and theirs could ruin everything.

My Review
In the opening scene, Virginia is making out with her boyfriend. Because the story starts there, I wasn’t sure what kind of content it would have, but that’s the most explicit scene in the whole book. Mostly it shows her conflicted feelings about her relationship. She feels that, because she’s overweight, she should be grateful to have a boyfriend and shouldn’t risk breaking up with him and being alone forever. But she’s definitely not into the make-out session like she would have been on another day.

I like Virginia. She’s smart and self-contained and independent. I love that she was taking a kick-boxing class! Somehow that made total sense for her, and it was a neat, unusual thing in the story.

Ultimately, The Universe is Expanding and So Am I is about relationships. Virginia’s relationships with her parents, her siblings, her friends, her boyfriend Froggy, and her new friend Sebastian all change through the course of the story. I loved the way that redefining those relationships showed her own personal growth, and that some of the relationships that affected her most, like the tree lady, were ones she might once have dismissed. Fans of The Best Possible Answer by E. Katherine Kottaras should add this one to their reading lists.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white.

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

Romance/Sexual Content
In the opening scene, Virginia is making out with her boyfriend. She mentions that they’ve had shirts off together before, but nothing further. This time, though, her boyfriend wants to do more. She stops him.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Virginia’s brother is accused of rape. We don’t learn the details of the incident, but it’s referenced a number of times.

Drug Content
Virginia’s brother is only 20, but her parents have allowed him to drink in the past. He was drunk the night he’s accused of raping a friend. (Sometimes Virginia’s parents seem to lean on this as an excuse for his behavior. Virginia makes it very clear she doesn’t buy that.) Byron gets drunk another time and Virginia has to take him home.

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

Review: Moonrise by Sarah Crossan

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

Moonrise
Sarah Crossan
Bloomsbury Children’s
Published on May 8, 2018

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About Moonrise
‘They think I hurt someone.
But I didn’t. You hear?
Coz people are gonna be telling you
all kinds of lies.
I need you to know the truth.’

As Joe’s older brother nears his execution date, Joe journeys to visit him before the end. He struggles to understand what happened from the night Ed’s accused of murder through the twists and turns in the justice system. Now, barely able to provide for himself, Joe tries his best to support his brother and hold onto the hope that his brother will have justice before he dies.

My Review
Moonrise shines a light on some cracks in the criminal justice system. I feel like cracks isn’t the right word. Holes? Canyons? I’m not sure. Nevertheless, reading a story about someone who seems to have been wrongfully convicted can’t be easy.

Joe’s whole life is a struggle, but his brother Ed was one of the brightest spots in it as he grew up, fatherless, and with a drug-addicted mother. That changes when Ed goes to prison for murder, even though there isn’t much evidence to support the conviction. Now he tries to be a support to his brother in what may be his final days, even though he has no idea what to say or how to say it. Even though he can barely afford to survive on his own in the small Texas town where Ed’s imprisoned.

The story has a lot of grim moments, but it’s not without hope. Joe befriends a young woman who teaches him about forgiveness and love. He meets a Chaplin who challenges him to be strong. His sister and aunt find ways to love one another despite the difficult circumstances they find themselves in.

Did I like the story? For some reason, I find it tough to answer that. It’s an uncomfortable read in some ways. I found I couldn’t read it without examining my own thoughts on issues like the death penalty and police procedures surrounding suspects and pressure to elicit a confession. I think this was the author’s point, so in that way, the story must be a success. Was it a comfortable read? No. Not at all. But there are a lot of books worth reading that aren’t comfortable. I have to call this one of them.

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used moderately frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Joe and his brother meet with a Chaplin who brings them comfort.

Violent Content
Joe’s brother has been accused and convicted of shooting a police officer. No descriptions of the officer’s death.

Drug Content
Joe and a girl smoke pot together in one scene. In another, they drink alcohol.

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

 

Review: Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett

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

Starry Eyes
Jenn Bennett
SimonPulse
Published on April 3, 2018

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About Starry Eyes
Ever since last year’s homecoming dance, best friends-turned-best enemies Zorie and Lennon have made an art of avoiding each other. It doesn’t hurt that their families are the modern day, Californian version of the Montagues and Capulets.

But when a group camping trip goes south, Zorie and Lennon find themselves stranded in the wilderness. Alone. Together.

What could go wrong?

With no one but each other for company, Zorie and Lennon have no choice but to hash out their issues via witty jabs and insults as they try to make their way to safety. But fighting each other while also fighting off the forces of nature makes getting out of the woods in one piece less and less likely.

And as the two travel deeper into Northern California’s rugged backcountry, secrets and hidden feelings surface. But can Zorie and Lennon’s rekindled connection survive out in the real world? Or was it just a result of the fresh forest air and the magic of the twinkling stars?

My Review
Not gonna lie, I got pretty excited when I started reading this book. I loved Zorie’s hyper-organized planner personality right from the beginning. On top of that, her interest in astronomy had me hooked. I was less sure about Lennon, who seemed maybe too perfect hipster or something.

As the story went on, though, Lennon grew on me. Turns out, he’s not just a sulking, horror-obsessed pretty face. I liked that his expertise both as a hiker and as an employee at a reptile-focused pet store advanced the story.

If I’m being totally honest, though, Zorie kind of disappointed me. I wanted more from her astronomy interest. More stargazing. More about why the stars drew her. I also found myself wishing her knowledge was necessary on the journey out of the woods, too. Instead, I felt like she kind of just followed Lennon around being impressed by his prowess (which, don’t get me wrong, was impressive.).

The parts of the story about hiking were great. I’m not much of an outdoors person myself, but this book made me want to go on a backcountry hike. It seemed like it took some realistic risks into account and showed both the wonder and beauty of nature and its power and ruthlessness.

I struggled with the ending of the story. I don’t want to give too much away, but there’s a family crisis, and I couldn’t connect with Zorie’s reaction. I felt like she mostly whined about being separated from Lennon. It’s not unrealistic for a new love to be so all-consuming, I guess I felt like it was kind of shallow. I wanted her to be deeper, and have a broader emotional range at that point, or at least to admit that she was trying to avoid her problems by drowning herself in Lennon.

One thing I did find interesting was that she simultaneously argues with her parents that her love life (her relationship with Lennon) is not their business, but that problems in her parents’ relationship are her business. The story doesn’t address this directly, but I thought it was an interesting point—it’s easy to tell people to butt out of your own life. When that shoe is on the other foot, though, it pinches. (As a parent, I’m not really on the train that says kids deserve full freedom and privacy. While I’m still legally responsible for my kids, I get to know what’s going on. But that’s a whole different soap box.)

The banter between Zorie and Lennon was great. I also loved the way each character was so individual—even down to the minor ones who barely appeared in the story. It made the cast seem super realistic and definitely upped the tension surrounding some of those strong personalities.

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Lennon has two (lesbian) moms. Zorie’s mom (step-mom) is Korean. She also has chronic hives.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to making out. References to sex. One brief reference to masturbation. One scene shows characters in preparation to have sex and leads into the act. Zorie makes some lusty comments throughout the book. Most of them are vague, but show her interest in sex and attraction to boys.

Lennon’s moms run a shop that sells sex toys. A couple scenes take place inside the shop among the items there.

Spiritual Content
Lennon makes a couple of jokes about Bible verses (misquoting them for a punch line) and mentions going to church with his mom. Zorie describes the church as more a gathering place for people of many different belief systems. Later, she makes a brief reference to a waterfall being like a god.

Violent Content
Reference to a man getting punched in the face.

Drug Content
A teen boy steals wine from a bar while the bartender is distracted. He and another teen get drunk. They face consequences.

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