Category Archives: Contemporary

Review: The Row by J. R. Johansson

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

The Row by J R JohanssonThe Row
J. R. Johansson
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Available October 11, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About The Row

A death sentence. A family torn apart. One girl’s hunt for the truth.

Seventeen-year-old Riley Beckett is no stranger to prison. Her father is a convicted serial killer on death row who has always maintained that he was falsely accused. Riley has never missed a single visit with her father. She wholeheartedly believes that he is innocent.

Then, a month before the execution date, Riley’s world is rocked when, in an attempt to help her move on, her father secretly confesses to her that he actually did carry out the murders. He takes it back almost immediately, but she cannot forget what he’s told her. Determined to uncover the truth for her own sake, she discovers something that will forever change everything she’s believed about the family she loves.

My Review

This was one of those books where every time I thought I knew what was going on, there was some new layer that turned everything upside down. I love books like that, so I definitely enjoyed that element. I loved Riley right from the beginning and especially liked Jordan and his cute little brother Matthew, too. I thought the connection between them definitely added a lot of tension. I liked that Riley made her own search for truth.

The only thing that bothered me about the story was Riley’s voice. I kept forgetting that she was supposed to be seventeen and hearing her as much younger, like fourteen or fifteen. On the whole that didn’t disrupt my ability to get caught up in the story. I liked the characters enough to overlook it.

The Row is a great book for suspense or mystery readers. It definitely had some unexpected surprises for me. If you like Jennifer Lynn Barnes series The Naturals, you definitely want to read this one.

Recommended Ages: 14 up

Cultural Elements
Riley and her parents are white. Jordan and his family are Hispanic.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
A few brief kisses. Some vague discussion about a man who had an affair.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some brief descriptions of injuries to murder victims. A man attacks a woman and a boy. He breaks bones and stabs the woman in the stomach. He makes it clear that he intends to kill them both. Two men are shot.

Drug Content
Riley learns disturbing news and gets drunk. Later her mother does the same thing.

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

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Review: Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , ,

Flora and Ulysses
Kate DiCamillo
Candlewick Press

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When Flora saves a squirrel from a powerful vacuum cleaner, she discovers that he has super powers. She names him Ulysses and brings him home to teach him what it means to be a hero, and she watches and waits for his true superpowers to emerge. Ulysses’ powers do emerge: a deep love for Flora and the gift of poetry. Her desire to protect him and his power to communicate changes Flora’s life in unexpected ways.

My family and I listened to this as an audiobook on our vacation. I loved the comics that Flora reads and how they were a bond between her and her dad. Ulysses totally had me from the moment he walked onto the page. The tone of the story is playful and fun, but it delves pretty deep into some emotional territory. Flora’s parents have separated, and that really unsettles her. She doubts her mom’s love for her, resenting the household lamp shaped like a shepherdess that her mother keeps in a prized spot in the house. During the separation, Flora’s relationship with her father becomes strained. Having Ulysses in her life is this huge, positive thing, and soon he begins to affect everyone around her.

Throughout the story, we laughed, we teared up. We shouted, “Holy Bagumba!” right there along with Flora and her dad. It was a great read, and a lot of fun.

Cultural Elements
Smalltown America. I don’t recall racial descriptions of characters.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few expressions like, “what the heck,” “holy unanticipated occurences,” and “for the love of Pete” pepper the story. Nothing heavier than that.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
A woman briefly discusses Pascal’s Wager with Flora and what it means. (That believing in God on faith means one has less to lose than not believing. She also mentions that her husband, who has died, is “singing with the angels.”

Flora quotes from a comic that says, “Do not hope. Only observe.” She wrestles to follow this advice but realizes that she can’t help hoping, and that hope is what carries her through some hard moments.

Violent Content
Flora’s mom wants her dad to take Ulysses out and bash him on the head with a shovel to kill him.

At one point, a man with a chef’s knife starts toward Ulysses. With her father’s implied permission, Flora trips the man.

Drug Content
Flora’s mom smokes cigarettes.

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Review: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

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

The One and Only Ivan
Katherine Applegate
HarperCollins

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Ivan has a small life within the glass walls of his domain in the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. He watches TV and spends time with Bob, a stray dog, and Stella, an elephant. He makes art using crayons and paper given to him by his owner, Mack. He doesn’t think of his early life or his far away home in the jungle. And then Ruby, a baby elephant comes to the Big Top Mall, and everything changes. The mall is the wrong place for Ruby, and it’s up to Ivan to make everyone see that. He must find a way to show the humans where he and Ruby belong.

My family and I listened to an audiobook version of this story on our way home from vacation. We had listened to Flora and Ulysses a few days earlier, which was a tough act to follow. As The One and Only Ivan began, I wasn’t sure I’d like it. The beginning contains a lot of descriptions of where Ivan lives and who else lives there. It felt like not much was happening. Not much does happen until Ruby comes into the picture. Suddenly Ivan has a goal, a mission, and he won’t stop until he succeeds. For me, the story was much more entertaining at that point. My favorite character was Bob, the stray dog who always has some smart-aleck comment but who has a sweet heart underneath.

At the end of the story is an author’s note describing how Applegate was inspired by a real gorilla’s tale. Ivan was a real gorilla in captivity who spent later years of his life at the Atlanta Zoo (which I really want to visit!) I thought it was really cool to bring a real story into a novel like this.

Though the overall pace was a little slow for me, I did enjoy reading this book. It has been on my To Read list since it came out in 2012, so I’m glad to finally be able to say I read it. If you like stories featuring animals as central characters, this is a definitely must-read.

Cultural Elements
Most of the characters are animals. I can’t remember any race descriptions.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Ivan mentions that he sometimes flings dung at rude visitors. (He’s in a glass enclosure, so it’s ineffective.)

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: This Adventure Ends by Emma Mills

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, ,

This Adventure Ends
Emma Mills
Henry Holt & Co
Available October 4, 2016

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When Sloane’s family moves from New York to Florida before her senior year, she doesn’t feel she’s left much behind. A party brings her within the gravitational field of Vera, a social media starlet, and Gabe, her intensely serious twin brother with a justice complex. Without meaning to, Sloane falls into twins’ social circle, and ever deeper into their lives. When a beloved painting by their late mother goes missing, Sloane makes secret plans to bring it back. This is a problem she can fix, she knows it.

At home, Sloane’s family begins to feel more and more fractured, and finding the painting, freeing the twins from their grief, becomes an all-consuming project for Sloane. Too soon she’s forced to ask the question she can’t bear to face. What happens if she can’t bring the painting home?

Earlier this year I read First & Then by Emma Mills, which totally charmed me. I still like it, and I was nervous but also excited about reading another book by this author, because once you have those high expectations, it can be really awful if the story doesn’t live up, you know?

Well. This one blew me away. I laughed. I bawled. I sneaked out of my room in the middle of the night (after my husband was like omg, would you please go to sleep??) because I could NOT rest until I knew the ending of the book.

This book is like a list of my favorite things. Witty dialogue. An emo boy (I know, but it’s really a thing.) A deep and surprising emotional journey. True friendships from unexpected places.

I love it with all the sweat of all the babies. (Nevermind. Just read it. You’ll understand.)

Cultural Elements
Vera and Gabe’s mom is from the Dominican Republic. One of their friends is Indian. Vera and her girlfriend are lesbians.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Sloane stops a bully from picking on another boy and makes a comment about him belonging at home masturbating alone. A couple boy-girl kisses. Vera dates a girl named Tash. The vampire TV show Sloane’s dad is obsessed with features two boys who are star-crossed lovers. Sloane reads a bit of racy fan fic. No details.

Spiritual Content
Sloane’s dad becomes obsessed with writing fan fic based on a TV show featuring vampires.

Violent Content
Boys get into a fist fight.

Drug Content
In the opening scene, Sloane is at a party where teens drink alcohol. Later, a drunk friend asks her to pick him up and give him a ride home.

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

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Review: Wrecked by Maria Padian

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

Wrecked
Maria Padian
Algonquin Young Readers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

In the midst of Haley’s recovery from a concussion, she learns her roommate has been raped. As Jenny wrestles with the aftermath of the trauma, she’s faced with a lot of decisions: should she report the incident to the college? Should she go to the police? She depends on Haley for support, a burden which Haley isn’t sure she’s capable of shouldering. Especially when a group of aggressive feminists rally around Jenny to support her and convince her to respond the way they believe is best.

In this midst of all this, Haley meets Richard, a handsome fellow student and math tutor. Just when it seems she may have, for the first time, found someone special, she learns that Richard lives in the same house with the boy who raped Jenny. Worse still, he recently dated the gorgeous lead feminist. (She dumped him for his chauvinistic attitudes, another fact that makes Haley nervous.)

The two struggle to navigate the new relationship in the midst of the crisis, and it’s not easy. Rumors, distrust and scandal show up at every turn. If there’s any hope of a future for them, Haley and Richard will have to find out the truth about what happened to Jenny and resolve for themselves what constitutes sexual consent.

This was a tough read. (I feel like I’m saying that a lot lately.) I liked that rather than the story being from the point-of-view of the victim and perpetrator, it’s told from the perspective of bystanders. There’s a lot of hope in the development of Haley and Richard’s relationship, and a lot of opportunity for healing.

Wrecked brings a lot of great moments offering discussion on consent. It sheds light on the process a rape victim might go through as she reports the incident and the information becomes relatively public. It shows how an entitled college kid could take advantage of a girl almost without realizing it.

He should have realized it. That’s kind of the point. But honestly, isn’t this another reason that getting drunk at a party like this is a terrible idea? Would he have realized, had he been sober, that this girl was in no position to give him her consent, and that she in fact was only barely conscious? Because that’s another conversation we need to be having.

His inebriation doesn’t excuse him anymore than it would if he’d chosen to get behind the wheel of a car. But I’m not sure we’re doing a great job educating kids about this either. As a culture, don’t we sort of treat college drinking—sometimes even teen drinking—like some kind of rite of passage? At any rate, I’d have liked to see that connection between drinking and making bad—criminal, in this case—decisions more clearly drawn in Wrecked, but even without it, the focus on the consent issue was very well-done.

More and more I’m convinced that consent is a conversation we need to have and aren’t having enough. I think Padian presented a wide array of responses to the topic in Wrecked, from the uber-politically-correct feminists to the creepazoid guy who spearheads a slander campaign against Jenny on social media. If this isn’t a conversation-starter, I don’t know what is.

Cultural Elements
Most characters appear to be white middle- or upper-class. One character is African-American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used moderately throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content – TRIGGER WARNING
We learn Jenny’s account of her experience through what she says in a hearing as well as in a real-time scene describing what happens to her. A boy has sex with her while she’s just in and out of consciousness. It’s described explicitly.

Richard reflects on his relationship with Carrie, and at one point begins to tell her that he enjoyed how assertive she was with him the night before. (That’s pretty much as explicit as he gets.) Later, another girl interested in him laments her status as a virgin. She worries that the fact that he has sexual experience will mean that he’s not interested in her or won’t respect her boundaries. She doesn’t feel committed to her virginity, she’s just inexperienced thus far.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
See sexual content. The rape isn’t violent in terms of the boy doesn’t attack her, though it’s no less wrong or traumatic.

Drug Content
College students drink alcohol at parties and beforehand. Rumors state that one boy who mixed drinks for a party may have added drugs to them.

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

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Review: Pax by Sarah Pennypacker

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

Pax
Sara Pennypacker
Illustrated by Jon Klassen
Balzer + Bray

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

From Goodreads

Pax was only a kit when his family was killed, and “his boy” Peter rescued him from abandonment and certain death. Now the war front approaches, and when Peter’s father enlists, Peter has to move in with his grandpa. Far worse than being forced to leave home is the fact that Pax can’t go. Peter listens to his stern father—as he usually does—and throws Pax’s favorite toy soldier into the woods. When the fox runs to retrieve it, Peter and his dad get back in the car and leave him there—alone. But before Peter makes it through even one night under his grandfather’s roof, regret and duty spur him to action; he packs for a trek to get his best friend back and sneaks into the night. This is the story of Peter, Pax, and their independent struggles to return to one another against all odds. Told from the alternating viewpoints of Peter and Pax.

My Review

This book, to me, was like Disney’s The Fox and the Hound meets John Boyne’s Stay Where You Are and Then Leave. Well, it was all the things I loved about those stories. Pax was the cutest thing ever, and my heart totally broke for him as he got left behind. I loved Peter, too, for his devotion and loyalty to his fox. I wasn’t totally sure about Vola at first. I sort of expected her to be a brief presence in the story, but she stayed around, and actually, I came to love her, too. There’s one moment where she places her hands on Peter’s head, and it’s this really tender gesture, especially since Peter has been so starved for affection since his mom’s death. I totally bawled. It’s so sweet.

The illustrations also added a lot to the story. I loved the style of the drawings. It made me really want to give the book as a gift for Christmas. And I just might do that!

Some of the descriptions of war are a bit harsh, so this story definitely has some grit to it. In some ways, that only strengthened the power of the other themes about love and the value of a life, any life. If you liked Be Light Like a Bird by Monika Schröder, you will want to check this one out.

Cultural Elements
Vola describes herself as part Creole, part Italian among other things. Peter describes her as someone who used to speak another language that sounded like a song.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Vola swears, saying “dyeableman.” At one we’re told Peter swears. (What he actually says doesn’t appear.)

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Peter describes his connection with Pax as feeling a mental or spiritual connection. Vola tells him about the Buddhist concept of oneness—“two but not two.”

Violent Content
Land mines explode, killing and injuring animals. Vola lost her leg in a similar explosion. Pax learns to hunt and kill prey. He and the other foxes eat mice, etc.

Drug Content
None.

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