Category Archives: Contemporary

Review: First & Then by Emma Mills

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

First & Then by Emma MillsFirst & Then
Emma Mills
Henry Holt & Co.

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With college application deadlines fast-approaching, Devon is under pressure to be her most extraordinary self. The problem? How would Jane Austen say this? She’s remarkably uninteresting. Devon has never minded the sidelines. Especially when her best friend Cas and secret love takes the football field. When her socially awkward cousin Foster moves in with Devon’s family, his presence changes everything, bringing the local unapproachable football star, Ezra, into Devon’s path. Like, almost constantly. Ezra’s new closeness seems to stir some jealous feelings in Cas, and at first Devon thinks this might be the moment in which he discovers his deep love for her. But as she gets to know Ezra better, she starts to wonder if it really is Cas she wants.

I have to be honest. If you had asked me if I’d like to read a book equal parts football and Jane Austen, I would have looked at you as if you’d just asked whether I’d like ice cream on my nachos. Um, what? No. Just no.

But.

I think this really worked. It had a lot more profanity than I was expecting and felt was necessary, but I did enjoy the way Devon kept this inner monologue of Jane Austen describing her modern life. I liked that it celebrated Austen without making the story a straight-up retelling of a familiar tale or something like that. I also enjoyed Foster’s rambling monologues and totally inappropriate questions. I laughed out loud at some moments.

As far as the plot goes, there were definitely some unexpected twists and turns. I liked that, in keeping with true Austen tradition, this isn’t a story with explicit sex. Devon’s on a quest for love, and while she recognizes that sex is out there, she’s not eager for it for its own sake.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
One of Devon’s high school friends is pregnant. There’s not much discussion about who she’s been involved with or anything like that. Devon laments her lack of sexual experience. As a senior in high school, she’s never even been kissed, and she hasn’t dated since eighth grade. There are a couple of scenes in which kids are described as making out or kissing. Devon knows that some of her friends are sexually active, but they don’t talk about it explicitly.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Devon’s cousin joins the football team, and she witnesses some practices and games. One player is tackled and suffers a concussion. He is rushed to the hospital. One boy shoves another boy’s head under water repeatedly in a swimming pool. It’s clearly a threat and not a joke.

Drug Content
Devon attends parties where teens are drinking alcohol. She doesn’t enjoy the parties and often doesn’t stay late. Her cousin and another friend each throw parties without any alcohol which are still well-attended, though some guests show up drunk already or plan to leave for other parties in order to get drunk.

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

 

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Review: Be Light Like a Bird by Monika Schröder

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

Be Light Like a Bird
Monika Schröder
Capstone Young Readers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

After Wren’s father unexpectedly dies, her mother rips her away from her only home. Move after move takes Wren further and further across the country, and Wren can’t help but wonder what her mom is running from. Then Wren finds a beautiful pond to secret herself away to watch birds the way she and her father used to do. When Wren discovers the local landfill owner plans to demolish her sacred place, Wren vows to stop him.

The birdwatching elements felt very natural to me. I’m not an experienced birdwatcher by any means, but my daughter and I kept a journal for about a year of birds we saw behind our house in a canal (a surprising number and variety, actually.) So I enjoyed that part of the story, and it definitely resonated with me.

Wren and her mom deal with the grief over losing her dad in very different ways. For a time it becomes a wedge between them. Wren meets a boy in school who also lost a parent, and they bond over those losses and how they’ve changed their surviving parents. It’s a really healing experience for Wren. So is her campaign to save the pond. I think the emotional journey of grief and the outward journey to save the pond balanced the story in a great way.

There is one part where Wren’s mom reveals a secret about her father that’s very hurtful. I really struggled with that decision. It didn’t feel like the right call to me, so that kind of took me out of the story a bit as I wrestled with why it bothered me so much. More details in the spoiler section.

Other than that, though, I enjoyed the story a lot. Both grief and love for our environment are really worthy topics for a novel, and Be Light Like a Bird handles both very well.

Cultural Elements
Wren speaks with a man who purchased her dad’s old car. He has some Native American ancestry. The story briefly talks about the importance of respecting Native American burial grounds and what items might be found there.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
See spoiler section. There’s nothing sexually graphic, but Wren does learn something traumatic about her parents’ relationship.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

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

SPOILER
Wren’s mom tells her that her father was having an affair. She mentions having found romantic letters and states that he planned to leave Wren and her mom. Wren is, of course, devastated. It does explain her mom’s anger and impulsive behaviors, but I couldn’t help wishing that Wren hadn’t had to deal with that information, especially so close to losing her dad.

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Review: Just a Few Inches by Tara St. Pierre

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

Just a Few Inches
Tara St. Pierre
CreateSpace

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When Carrie finds the perfect dress for the Valentine’s Day dance, she buys it, even though it’s a size too small. Though she only has days to prepare for the dance, she radically changes her food intake and begins taking diet pills, more than the recommended dose. She slims down just in time for the dance. The dress, the night with her boyfriend, everything is perfect. Until Carrie realizes it isn’t only her waist that’s smaller. It’s her. She’s shrinking. Doctors scramble to find a cure while Carrie grows ever smaller. As she shrinks, she loses social status, but even worse, her independence. As she gets smaller each day, she begins to wonder if doctors will find a cure in time, or if she’ll shrink until she disappears.

When I first saw this book, I thought it was going to be about anorexia. And certainly at first, Carrie’s dangerous foray into diet pills and extreme dieting seem to be part of behaviors and ideas that lead to anorexia. But she quits the pills and dieting once the dance is over. And then the real trouble begins. Carrie starts out at more than five and a half feet tall. Before the story ends, she shrinks several feet. So it was really more about how her change in height affects her relationships at school and home. Her parents begin to treat her like a much younger child. Her boyfriend finds it difficult to continue their romance. It also changes her role on the cheer squad and eventually her ability to attend school.

So it was definitely different than I expected. I liked that it was a fresh, different story. Some of the descriptions of things Carrie experiences related to her height changes were really vivid and interesting. In other ways, I was left wondering what things were like for her. I couldn’t always tell if she was literally shrinking with all of her physical proportions remaining the same, or if she was shrinking like growing in reverse order, so that proportionally she’d be more like a toddler as she shrank that small?

Though the real story is Carrie’s emotional journey in realizing her value doesn’t come from her height, some of that gets undercut by her parents’ treatment of her. Then, the resolution of her medical issues happens in a quick montage at the end, and I felt like those moments didn’t get the emphasis they deserved.

Her relationship with her friends on the cheer squad is a high point in the story. Readers looking for stories about friendship and self-image may find this one scratches those itches.

Cultural Elements
The characters are pretty homogenous. Everyone seems to be white middle class.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Carrie and her boyfriend kiss in the back seat of his car. She lets him touch her breasts. Later, they go up to his room and she reports that they have sex. No details. When her medical troubles start, her doctor asks if she’s sexually active, and because her mom is present, Carrie lies. She feels ashamed about lying.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Carrie takes diet pills and doesn’t follow the instructions. She takes much more than the dosage she should.

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

 

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Review: Detached by Christina Kilbourne

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

Detached
Christina Kilbourne
Dundurn Press
Available August 13, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

After her grandparents’ unexpected deaths, Anna begins to feel untethered from her life. She fantasizes about suicide, the only end to the awful pressure of existing that she can see. On the outside, her best friend Aliya senses something isn’t right with her usually level-headed friend. But as Anna’s behavior becomes more and more erratic, it’s hard for her friends and family members to face the truth that something is deeply wrong.

This is a fairly dark story about a teenage girl suffering from depression. What I liked most was having the inside and outside views of Anna—in her point-of-view and her friend Aliya’s. I found it easy to empathize especially with Aliya because while she watched Anna spiral downward, she wanted to help, but she didn’t want to overreact. Where’s the line between someone having an off day versus some kind of deeper masked depression? I had several friends who wrestled with thoughts of suicide in high school, so that definitely resonated with me.

There are a couple of sections of the story written from Anna’s mom’s point-of-view that I didn’t think were really necessary. Of anything, they felt the most preachy and repetitive, since often we saw the same scene again through Anna’s perspective.

Often a story about depression (sometimes even without meaning to) glamorizes the depression itself. This story doesn’t do that. Anna’s feelings are disturbing, even to her, but she feels trapped by them. They make her blind to the things going on around her—things like the boy who has a crush on her, and the joy she once felt spending time with her friends. Detached captured that element of depression really well, I thought, and it also offers hope without feeling chastising or belittling to Anna’s experience. We see the trauma that not only she experiences. We see it in the reactions of her family members and her friends.

While I think this is a great examination of depression and suicidal thoughts, some of Anna’s ideas and pursuits are a bit graphic. This might not be a good read for someone in the midst of these kinds of feelings. Friends and family members of someone suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts might find the window into Anna’s and her family’s experiences validating or helpful.

See the content notes for additional information.

Cultural Elements
None.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Moderate profanity. The first half only uses mild profanity infrequently. After an intense event, Anna ups the ante and swears quite a bit (which she acknowledges).

Romance/Sexual Content
Kyle hopes to ask Anna out, but instead chickens out.

Spiritual Content
Anna briefly contemplates jumping in front of a car to end her life, but worries about facing God afterward. What if she killed innocent people in the process?

Later, she comments that maybe God figures she deserves to die after all when one of her plans to kill herself seems to be coming together easily.

Anna faces her family’s grief over her depression, and for a moment wishes to go back to believing she succeeded with her suicide.

Violent Content
Anna spends a lot of time fantasizing about and planning her suicide. She makes several attempts to kill herself, one of which is pretty violent. A boy hangs himself in a tree on Halloween. He appears to be the victim of bullying.

Drug Content
Anna and her friends sneak off to parties a couple of times. Anna drinks beer and lies to her mom about it. Aliya and her friends also drink.

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

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Review: Gemini by Sonya Mukherjee

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

Gemini
Sonya Mukherjee
Simon & Schuster
Available July 26, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

A small town home fits just right for Clara, who longs to study the night sky and live in the familiar community where everyone knows her and her sister Hailey. But Hailey wants more. She learns of an art program in San Francisco, and soon it’s all she can think about. Problem is, where Hailey goes, Clara must go, as the two are conjoined twins. While Clara and Hailey can’t imagine life any other way, they each long for things that seem impossible. A boyfriend. World travel. A trip to the stars.

Last year I read One by Sarah Crossan, and I kind of expected this story to follow much the same path. Instead, Gemini charts its own course, following the story of two gifted girls. There were definitely some unexpected moments. At one point, Hailey confronts a girl who’d been a bully in the past. The girl responds angrily, saying she’s spent years trying to make up for her mistake and be kind to Hailey and Clara. Hailey realizes that perhaps this is true, and perhaps she’s the one who’s been holding a grudge and being judgmental. This was a great moment, and it challenged some overused themes about who the bullies and the victims are.

The twins explore what it would take to have a normal life and whether that’s worth risking everything to have. Mukherjee let that journey wind through familiar and expected territory and also into some paths less often tread. Gemini made me appreciate the choices Clara and Hailey made and celebrate their victories and dreams. Some of their dreams become possible. Others remain out of reach. But isn’t that life for us all?

Readers who enjoyed One by Sarah Crossan would probably also enjoy this novel. Fans of Sister Pact by Stacie Ramey and stories that explore deep emotional questions and the bonds of sisterhood will want to add Gemini to their reading lists.

Cultural Elements
Hailey and Clara are conjoined twins, joined back to back. Juanita is one of the girls’ best friends and confidantes. At the start of the story, a boy joins Hailey’s and Clara’s classes. They soon discover that he stutters, especially in situations with high social pressure.

Clara especially struggles with social situations in which people stare or say and do rude things. One of the reasons the family lives in a small community is so that everyone will get used to seeing them and they’ll be able to have something like a normal life within the community. The story explores the idea of normalcy and what it really means to the girls. As they begin to think about college programs, it’s clear they have very different aspirations.

The boys, Alek and Max, address Hailey and Clara individually, at times almost forgetting that they’re joined. While all of that happened seamlessly in the scenes of the story, it felt like a big statement about their individuality and personhood, one I felt was cleverly incorporated into the story.

The issue of surgery to separate the twins does come up, and they evaluate it carefully.

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

Romance/Sexual Content
Boys from school tease Clara’s new friend Max about his interest in her and Hailey, saying he must be interested in them because he’d be getting two girls at the same time. Max explodes, yelling at the way the other boys speak about Hailey and Clara, as if they’re objects or sex toys.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Hailey’s friend Alek paints a picture that disturbs her. His art often involves gore or dark elements. He later explains why death so often appears in his art juxtaposed against Thomas Kincade-like settings. The pictures are usually only briefly described. The picture that bothers Hailey has a little more description. Alek explains the symbolism of the image and why there’s so much blood, and he means the expression to be flattering. (Yeah, this doesn’t make much sense here. It makes more sense in the story, but I don’t want to give too much away.)

Drug Content
The girls go to a party, but leave early.

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

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Review: The Year of the Book by Andrea Cheng

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

The Year of the Book
Andrea Cheng
HMH Books for Young Readers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When a social shift at school leaves Anna without her best friend, she turns to books for companionship. When she feels pressure in Chinese class because she doesn’t know as much as the other kids, books are her refuge. But as the people in Anna’s life begin to experience troubles of their own, she learns that sometimes, just like the heroes in her stories, she must step out into the unknown and offer help. Sometimes, Anna learns, this is precisely what makes for the best friendships.

Anna charmed me from the first page. I loved the descriptions of the stories she read, and though I hadn’t read all of them myself, it was easy to understand why the stories mattered to her. I liked that she found herself faced with other people’s needs. Reading is awesome, but sometimes it isolates us from others. And when people in Anna’s life needed things, it drew her out of her books and allowed opportunities for her to have relationships with them. I loved the sweet, subtle way the author explores learning how to be a good friend.

I also liked the sense of community in the story. Anna’s class experience felt very real, and her relationship with the elderly man her mother cares for also felt authentic and added a lot to the story.

Cultural Elements
Anna and her family are Chinese American. She takes Chinese classes with other kids her age, but finds it frustrating not to know as much as they do because her mother insists on speaking English to her at home.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Brief references to Chinese traditions.

Violent Content
At one point a man bangs on the door of Anna’s family’s apartment looking for his daughter, Anna’s friend. The girls are scared, but Anna’s parents send the man away.

Drug Content
None.

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