Category Archives: Contemporary

Review: Forever For a Year by B T Gottfred

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

Forever For a Year by B T GottfredForever For a Year
B. T. Gottfred
Henry Holt and Company

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Carolina and Trevor begin their freshman year at a new high school. Carolina is determined to make the right friends and impress her bestie’s older, more sophisticated sister. Trevor, new in town and resentful of the issues causing his family to relocate, has no expectation to enjoy his new school. Then he meets Carolina. The two fall head over heels and soar into the glory of first love.

As their feelings deepen, they spend more and more time alone, and kissing leads to touching leads to more. But their professed love and belief that they are each other’s soul mates may not be enough to bind the two together when Trevor keeps a secret and Carolina makes a mistake.

Gottfred captures the roller coaster ride of hormones and emotions. Carolina and Trevor’s relationship has its own gravity which pulls even their personalities into orbit around it. Though Carolina was almost obnoxiously perky at times, Trevor’s brooding temper and deep family issues kept the story from becoming trite. He experienced many of the story’s powerful moments, from the lesson on falling in love vs. being in love to the realization that long term relationships create their own baggage and become difficult. We watch the two believe wholeheartedly in the infallibility of their love and the power of being soul mates to cement their relationship for all time. And then life happens. Lies. Mistakes. Suddenly love isn’t so easy or so permanent. Gottfred really captured those moments and ideas well.

What fell flat for me was the ending. There’s this moment where I felt like the thread unraveled. I agreed with the plot of the ending. It needed to be that way. But after this long, powerful buildup, there was this moment where I felt like the characters kind of just dropped all the emotion and said, “The End,” and that was it. I also struggled with the story when the parents were being unfaithful. I felt like that revelation didn’t carry enough gravity and enough emotional fallout. I felt like it should have affected Carolina and Trevor more individually and as a couple.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
Explicit sexual content. The language used to describe the encounters is mild as opposed to erotic language, but the experiences are described in detail. Carolina and Trevor have little experience with the opposite sex when they begin dating. They spend a LOT of time behind a locked basement door exploring each other’s bodies and developing a sexual relationship. It’s steamy stuff, but it’s also fraught with the kind of awkwardness that one expects from inexperienced lovers.

Reading the book, I felt like it may be that the author wrote it with this level of specificity as a way to encourage teens who were active or experimenting with sex that many of the uncertainties and insecurities are common. I’m not a fan of explicit sex in teen fiction. I want to say a lot more about my thoughts on this as an approach to teen fiction, but I really think I need to save it for another post.

Trevor and Carolina also deal with feelings about their parents being unfaithful spouses.

I liked that Gottfred showed a spectrum of response to teen relationships. While Carolina and Trevor are pretty serious and heavy with each other, one of Carolina’s friends doesn’t date at all because her parents have set rules against it. One of Carolina’s other friends seems to be hooking up with random boys at parties. There are boys like Trevor, who wants to treat Carolina well in terms of not pressuring her and trying to reciprocate pleasure to her. Another boy pressures Carolina and really only cares about receiving satisfaction himself. Despite the explicitness, I did respect that this wasn’t a tale that painted everyone as getting into everyone else’s pants.

What was really weird, too, was that reading the explicit parts, I actually felt a bit like a creeper. Carolina and Trevor are so young, and they SOUND SO YOUNG. Eep. It was like walking in on a younger sibling and feeling like okay, now I need to forget I ever saw that! I don’t know if it’s because I’m not in the target age range or too old to read this stuff or what. I normally don’t weird myself out reading romantic YA, but this really felt weird to me.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Trevor and another boy get into a fist fight.

Drug Content
Several scenes show teens drinking alcohol.

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

Review: Not if I See You First by Eric Lindstrom

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

Not If I See You First
Eric Lindstrom
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Poppy

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Parker lives by a specific set of rules. She expects to be treated like everyone else. Judgment comes swiftly for anyone who takes advantage of the fact that she’s blind. One betrayal, and you’re cut from her life. Scott, the boy who was once her best friend and became her boyfriend learns this lesson the hard way.

Only now he’s back, transferred to her school, and Parker has no choice but to make the best of it. She prides herself on the ability to know the people around them, to read them even if she can’t see them. But as she grapples with unresolved feelings about Scott in the wake of her father’s death, she learns she may not see others as clearly as she thinks. In fact she may be dead wrong about the most important people in her life.

One of the random but very cool things to me about this book is that I constantly kept forgetting that the author is a man. Parker is so believably female and complex that I honestly checked several times because I thought maybe I’d misread the author’s name. (Not that I think men can’t write believable women or vice versa, but it’s always awesome when you find someone who does a spectacular job of it.)

As far as the story, I loved the unpredictable elements. I was surprised by the revelation about facts surrounding Parker’s dad’s death. I thought even the way their relationship worked seemed very real and definitely fit in with the larger story about how Parker doesn’t always peg people close to her as accurately as she would wish to believe.

I felt like there was a good balance between attention given to her blindness without the details about her daily life overtaking the story. I didn’t feel a lack of setting details despite the fact that they were not given through visual cues.

I loved the romance and the quick, witty dialogue. Great lines like that in conversation always make me want to be a better writer myself and feel a lot of admiration for the author who created them.

Other than the use of profanity (there was quite a bit), the story is pretty clean. I enjoyed reading it.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency. Also some crude language.

Sexual Content
Kissing. At one point Parker reflects on feeling starved for physical contact with people and how that makes her want to go further with a boy than she would normally feel comfortable.

Spiritual Content
Parker spends time thinking in long monologues to her dad after his death. She says she doesn’t believe he’s watching over her or seeing everything going on in her life. The conversations are her way of staying close to him.

Violence
Parker hears a scuffle when a boy tackles two other boys who have been picking on her.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Magic to Memphis by Julie Starr

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

Magic to Memphis
Julie Starr

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A box filled with postcards and mementos that once belonged to her father send seventeen year-old Jessie on a quest to Memphis to find the man who disappeared into his own dreams of musical stardom. Her faithful dog Bear protects her, and a quirky traveler named Finch talks to Jessie about the magic of making things happen. When Jessie begins to embrace this everyday magic, miraculous things begin to happen. But not everyone wishes Jessie well. A sinister man with dark power seeks artifacts in Jessie’s possession, and he’ll stop at nothing to get them back.

I’m not a dog person (go ahead and hate me) but I loved Bear, Jessie’s dog. I liked the way the author used the dog to build relationships between characters. I liked watching Jessie grow as a character. After her cold behavior causes a rift in her band, she learns to swallow her pride and admit she’s wrong sometimes. The music contest was awesome. I loved how that turned out (but I won’t spoil it.)

While I loved the added tension that the crazed killer brought to the story, I felt like he didn’t tie in with the rest of the story as well. He had some inexplicable powers that I kept waiting to be explained or to matter to the story somehow, and that never really panned out. The story isn’t really about him, though, so while it left me scratching my head a couple of times, overall, I enjoyed the tale and the way the author used a box of mementos, the music contest, and the dog to bring a community of people together.

Language Content
Strong profanity used moderately.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
References to “magic.” It feels more like a mystic sort of “power of positive energy” type of doctrine. At one point, Finch tells Jessie to imagine her dog well in order for him to recover. She visualizes the dog healed, and soon he is. The sinister guy pursuing Jessie is basically able to control others around him and make them forget things or do things for him, like give him their possessions.

Violence
Bad guy roughs some people up. The carnage left behind is briefly described.

Drug Content
Jessie works at a bar on Beale Street. The band celebrates a victory by drinking beer. (Jessie, at least, is underage.)

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

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers: Review and Thoughts on Book Banning

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

Some Girls Are
Courtney Summers
St. Martin’s Griffin

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard—falling from it is even harder.  Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High… until vicious rumors about her—and her best friend’s boyfriend—start going around.  Now Regina’s been frozen out, and her ex-best friends are out for revenge. 

If Regina were guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumors are far from the terrifying truth, and the bullying is getting more intense by the day.  She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past whom she herself used to bully.  Friendship doesn’t come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realizes Michael could be more than just a friend…if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don’t break them both first.

Tensions grow and the abuse worsens, as the final days of senior year march toward an explosive conclusion in this dark new tale from the author of CRACKED UP TO BE.

My Review

It’s hard for me not to compare this book to ALL THE RAGE, a more recently published novel by Courtney Summers which deals with some of the same issues (see content warning). I think I liked ALL THE RAGE better because it dealt more with the way the town as a whole responded to a rape allegation and some brutal high school bullying. I also connected more with Romy, the protagonist in ALL THE RAGE.

In SOME GIRLS ARE, Regina comes to regret her role in bullying other students, but in some ways, it still feels like that’s all she knows. She retaliates against her former friends in an effort to bring them down low enough that they’ll leave her alone. Instead, it continues the vicious cycle, only adding more fuel to the fires of revenge.

I think choosing to tell SOME GIRLS ARE from Regina’s perspective and bringing her passion for revenge to the forefront were really bold decisions and carried an important message. Regina isn’t the stereotypical novel victim, and I loved that. Unfortunately, I think I just didn’t really believe in her transformation at the end. I needed to see like three chapters more showing that she’d really changed and that she and Michael (whom I absolutely LOVED!!!) could work out together.

In YA, resolving an issue with any kind of adult involvement gets really tricky. Having a grown-up soar in and rescue the protagonist is a storytelling no-no. So I both appreciate and understand why that wasn’t the direction Summers took with the resolution of SOME GIRLS ARE. With a situation involving this kind of brutal bullying, it’s hard for me as a parent not to want adults involved. I believe we want kids to know they can and should bring adults into the equation when they reach a point where they can no longer attend school and feel safe.

I do want to acknowledge that sometimes kids are in situations where there isn’t a safe adult for them to go to, so I know that isn’t always a viable solution in real life, either.

SOME GIRLS ARE left me wishing for at least a nod to some adult figure who made at least some responsible call somewhere. Instead, I felt like the message was that if you can get good enough blackmail on a bully, you might just be able to stop the whole cycle.

Update: Since reading this book, I’ve discovered that I tend not to enjoy revenge stories. So probably at least part of my feelings for this one relate to that preference.

Content Notes

Content warning for mentions of rape, bullying, physical violence, mentions of suicide, death of a parent, drug use, drinking alcohol.

Language Content
Extreme and frequent use of profanity.

Sexual Content
At a party, a boy tries to rape a girl. He tears her skirt and leaves her arms bruised. Regina and her boyfriend Josh have had sex before. A boy taunts Regina about it, repeatedly asking if she only likes it in the dark. He also makes a crude comment about oral sex. Kissing between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
See sexual content. A group of girls surround Regina and repeatedly punch and kick her. A boy elbows another boy in the face, giving him a bloody nose. A dodgeball hits a boy in the face, giving him a bloody nose. A girl trips another girl, sending her tumbling down the stairs.

Girls use social media to bully Regina. They spread rumors about her and say cruel things to her and to one another. It’s not the first time this group has bullied someone. A previous target tried to commit suicide.

Brief reference to a woman killed when an overpass collapsed on her car. No real description of the accident.

Drug Content
One boy supplies students with pharmaceutical drugs. Teens gather at parties to drink alcohol. Mentions of smoking pot. Regina is the designated driver at both parties, but mentions that she drinks heavily at other times and winds up sick at the end of the night. She drinks alcohol in a couple of other scenes.

On Some Girls Are Being Removed from a Charleston Summer Reading List

I bought this book last summer (2015) when I heard about the decision by West Ashley High in Charleston to remove the book from their ninth grade summer reading list after receiving complaints from a parent about the content of the novel. The messages the books tackles are really important to us as a culture. I really admire this author’s unflinching look at some of the darker moments of high school. But, I see why it concerned this parent that a very limited required reading list included this option.

I have really mixed feelings about banning books. The short answer is I’m generally not a fan of book-banning. Largely because one vocal minority makes a decision that no one should have the option to read a particular book. I do not want to give the power to a select group to decide what we’re allowed to read.

I love that this particular parent made the choice to read the book with her daughter. Her ninth grade daughter had the choice between this book and another one and would be tested on comprehension once school started. As a parent, I’d certainly be uncomfortable with the amount of explicit content included in the book. I’d be uncomfortable that it’s on a reading list like this, where there are such limited options.

Banning a book, though, means one parent or a few make a decision for many kids beyond their own. I’m not sure that the book was banned in the school district as a whole, however. The article I read only mentions removing it from the reading list and adding another alternative selection for the class.

Courtney Summers received a ton of support from her fans and the YA community after the whole incident. Fans donated several hundred copies of the book, and public libraries in Charleston distributed them to the community. I think it’s really great that she received so much support. I do really believe in the importance of the kinds of issues she tackles in her writing.

Note: Post updated July 4, 2022. This post contains affiliate links which don’t cost anything to use but which help generate support for this blog.

Review: Dead Ringer by Jessie Rosen

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

Dead Ringer
Jessie Rosen
Full Fathom Five

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When Laura Rivers arrives at her new school in a small East Coast town, she’s not prepared for the fear-stricken looks from the other students. A little searching reveals the reason: Laura looks just like a girl who died last year. Though the death was reported as a suicide, a mysterious hacker keeps sending notes reminding Laura’s boyfriend of the fateful night. Notes that indicate Charlie and his friends keep a secret between them, one they tried to bury the night Sarah died. As the hacker closes in on revealing the truth, Laura struggles to determine who Charlie really is: the monster Sarah believed him to be, or a reformed boy trying to put the past behind him.

I had sort of a love-hate relationship with this novel. I really enjoyed several things about it. The plot was unpredictable. I felt like going in I knew where the story was going, and I was confused about how quickly some of the details unfolded. Long before reaching the halfway point, I felt like the course I expected the story to take had already been taken. From there, I had no idea what to expect, and I enjoyed that sense of freefalling as each new event occurred. I really liked the character Sasha. I felt like she was one of the only characters that I could really empathize with and really get behind. I wanted to like Charlie and Laura, but there were some really ugly moments that just kept me from really investing in them.

I felt like the story ended in a really weird place, too. I guess I kept waiting for this moment where justice would be served, and instead the story focused a lot on vengeance, which I didn’t find very satisfying. There’s a definite cliff-hanger at the end, so maybe book two will further explore the issues and deliver some well-earned justice.

Despite my issues, Dead Ringer may appeal to readers who like a dark mystery with a strong hand of vengeance and some unexpected twists.

Language Content
Moderate profanity used infrequently.

Sexual Content
Some description of kissing/making out. Reference to sex, but no description of the exchange. A girl briefly describes her first relationship with another girl (references kissing.)

Spiritual Content
There’s not a lot of discussion about God or the universe in the story, but one thing that stood out to me was the emphasis on vengeance rather than justice.

Violence
Brief description of a boy taking advantage of a girl. She reports that he raped her, but doesn’t describe the incident.

Drug Content
References to underage drinking.

Review: The Sister Pact by Stacie Ramey

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

The Sister Pact
Stacie Ramey
Sourcebooks FIRE

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

They were supposed to do it together. Allie and Leah had made a pact that if their parents’ failing marriage destroys their home life, they’ll escape into death together. Only, Leah makes the jump without Allie. And Allie is left behind to pick up the pieces.

So many things happen to this poor girl. Her best friend Max, who she’s in love with, totally doesn’t deserve her. But she can’t seem to get into the sweet boy who treats her well. Her painting massively suffers in the wake of her sister’s death. It’s like the colors have gone out of her world. No pressure. Just that whole art school portfolio deadline. On top of it all, her parents have split, her mom is nursing her Xanax addiction and Dad is shacked up with his new young girlfriend. It’s a pretty big mess, and understandably, Allie’s pretty much drowning.

I liked how the story unfolded in ways that challenged how I felt about each character. Often I would learn something that maybe didn’t reverse my feelings on a character, but showed some new insight that changed how I felt and also altered the course of events in the story. For the most part, I thought the characters themselves were fantastic. The one exception for me was John. I felt like he was too benevolent or something? I mean, he’s basically a drug pusher and something of a bully from the sound of things, but somehow he’s also the good guy? It just felt off for me. Like the balance was missing from his character.

The drug content and sexual content make this a pretty intense read. I liked that Ramey showed consequences to the drug abuse and that Allie really wrestles with how she feels about having had sex. I get tired of the portrayal of teen sex as this problem-free, everyone-is-doing-it-and-it-always-goes-well-unless-it’s-rape experience. I know not all teen books are like that, but it’s definitely a pet peeve of mine when they are. While I’m not a huge fan of sex in YA, I appreciated that Ramey related the experiences briefly and focused on the emotional fallout surrounding Allie’s decisions.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used frequently.

Sexual Content
Allie worries that being a virgin is preventing her from having a relationship with the boy she loves. She decides to have sex with a random boy to get it over with (the event is only briefly described) and afterward wonders if now sex is what boys will expect to get from her. There is another brief scene in which she has sex.

I loved that Ramey didn’t shy away from the pressure that Allie felt. She wanted to please everyone and be pleasing. She thought she could be desirable by having sex with a boy. It didn’t really work out that way, though. She had a lot of confusing feelings to work through. She does a lot of soul-searching through the story and definitely has more self-respect and confidence by the end. I thought the whole experience was very relate-able.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
Allie’s mom is addicted to Xanax. Her sister Leah overdosed on meds when she killed herself. Allie drinks alcohol at a party. Her friend and Leah smoke pot together. Leah bears some heavy consequences for this behavior. After Leah’s death, Allie begins experimenting with pills. One of Leah’s friends offers to supply her with whatever she wants for free. There are consequences condemning Allie’s behavior, and eventually she does promise to quit.