Category Archives: Contemporary

The Hopper-Hill Family by Erika Castiglioni

Review: The Hopper-Hill Family by Erika Castiglione

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

The Hopper-Hill Family by Erika CastiglioniThe Hopper-Hill Family
Erika Castiglione

Amazon | Goodreads

Twelve year-old Piper has always dreamed of having a sibling. She never imagined gaining three siblings in one weekend. But that’s exactly what happens when a tragic car accident brings her three orphaned cousins to live under her roof. Between their grief and the shock of the cross-country move, the cousins’ first days are rough. Piper tries to be her best self, to comfort them, but it’s hard to know what to say and do. She and her parents wrestle with the desire to welcome the three into their family without making them feel they have to forget their parents.

I think telling this story from Piper’s perspective was an interesting choice. She functions primarily as an observer, watching her parents wrestle with this unexpected change and watching her cousins work through grief in different ways. It’s not that Piper doesn’t have her own adjustments to make. She’s pretty mellow and even, kind of just goes with the flow of things, but she does have to face her own trials in the course of the story.

The conversations between Piper’s parents felt real and true to life for people experiencing not only grief and regret over lost loved ones but also feeling torn about bringing three children they feel they barely know into their home. While I loved the relatability of those moments, I felt like I didn’t get to hear enough from Piper. I wanted more dialogue between her and other characters.

As a divorced and remarried parent, I’m always looking for books that address issues of grief and blended families. Though The Hopper-Hill Family doesn’t merge families due to divorce, I felt like it presented some of the same questions, fears, and grief that children in a newly blended family might feel, as well as creating a sense of hope. Piper doesn’t experience the loss of her own parents, but her close observation of her household and her care for and patience with her cousins shows empathy and kindness in the face of the kind of grief that often leaves us not knowing how to respond to survivors.

All this might make the story sound really heavy – it’s not. I read through the whole tale in an afternoon. Despite the sad topic, it’s got a lot of hope and a lot of emphasis on what it means to become a family.

Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Sam, Cora, and Seth’s family all attended church in their Colorado town. Sam requests prayer at bed time after he moves in with Piper’s family. Cora continues to pray and keep in touch with a spiritual mentor. Piper’s parents worry that their non-religious home will be uncomfortable for the kids, but don’t make any changes regarding their own practices.

Violence
References to a car accident which killed two people. A child and dog are injured in a car accident as well.

Drug Content
Seth smokes cigarettes. Piper’s family eventually confronts him about this and he agrees to try to quit. Piper’s Uncle Carlos comes home drunk and vomits on the floor. He briefly tells Piper that he’s addicted to alcohol but moves out rather than getting any help. Later he sends a note to the family explaining he’s been clean for a few weeks.

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

Save

Review: Never Said by Carol Lynch Williams

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

Never Said
Carol Lynch Williams
Zondervan

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

In the midst of her devastation over a break-up, Sarah realizes something isn’t right with her twin. Annie has been withdrawing from the family for some time, but her behavior seems to be escalating. She chops off her hair, gains weight, and gives up the beauty pageants she once lived for. Though shy and socially anxious Sarah has always been jealous of the way her parents favor Annie, she begins to worry about her sister. Sarah pushes toward her sister, and finds that in return, Annie reluctantly opens up to her.

The writing style was the first thing that captured me in this story. The voice is strong, conveying Sarah’s inner agony and Annie’s mounting frustration with aching clarity. There was one moment at the beginning where I felt like the story was a bit repetitive in describing Sarah’s reaction to her family’s interactions. Other than that, things moved forward at a great pace, and I tore through the story in one sitting of just a few hours.

Annie’s weight gain dramatically changes the way the other students interact with her. While Annie feels that her new look is a shield against unwanted male attention, she also endures some hateful behavior from other kids. The exploration of body image and how weight affects the way others perceive us is important. Williams doesn’t shy away from the sad reality there. Annie eventually decides to return to her old look, and while I get it, I found myself wishing somehow that there had been a bigger pause, a bigger moment to say that it really doesn’t/shouldn’t matter what her weight is. Returning to her slimmer figure doesn’t increase her actual value, though it functioned as an indicator of Annie’s rising sense of her own value – she’d been hiding behind those extra pounds and shedding them would be like facing an enemy head-on. It showed real courage.

The resolution was a bit quick. All the way through the story Annie hints that she has a secret. It smells like sexual abuse, but we don’t find out what it is until the big reveal maybe three-quarters of the way through the story. Once this comes out, Sarah takes some action to protect her sister. Following this, we get kind of a summary of how everyone responded and what happened after that (visit spoiler section if you want to know more.) I felt like some of that was a bit rushed and didn’t allow me a chance to soak in the characters’ emotions in what was a really big moment.

I loved watching the sisters’ relationship develop. As a girl with two sisters, one close enough in age that we were often mistaken for twins, the tug-of-war Annie and Sarah experienced in terms of establishing their own identities and finding ways to connect despite their differences and pressure from parents or friends felt extremely real.

As I read, I found myself looking for the spiritual tie-in. Though this is a Zondervan book, there was not really any link that I could see to pursuing a Christian faith or even searching out questions about whether God is real or anything like that. I found it a bit puzzling, to be honest.

Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
Sarah recalls time spent with her boyfriend snuggling in his bed (clothed), kissing, and sneaking in/out of each other’s rooms. (see below for additional content which includes spoilers.)

Spiritual Content
None.

Shocked? Me too. Despite the fact that Zondervan is a Christian publisher… I can’t remember faith really playing any sort of role whatsoever in the story.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
None.

SPOILER (select the text below to read…)
Sexual content continued… Annie reveals that she’s no longer a virgin and that she’s had sex with a married man, even after she told him no. It’s a quick conversation and there’s not a lot of follow-up information.

While I appreciate that we weren’t dragged through the gory details of Annie’s relationship, I kind of felt like the resolution of this information, which the whole story has been building up to, was too quick and too many things were left unsaid. We have enough infer that it’s a bad relationship from the brief information Annie reveals, and there’s a brief wrap-up letting us know that this guy isn’t going to get off scot-free. I just felt like it needed to be a bigger moment. I wanted to really feel Annie’s parents realize what’s been happening and see them respond to her with all the shock, horror, and protection, rather than just have Sarah tell us that was so.

 

Review: The Raft by S. A. Bodeen

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

The Raft by S. A. Bodeen
Feiwel & Friends

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When a frightening experience turns fifteen year-old Robie’s unsupervised Hawaii vacation into a nightmare, she boards a plane for home on the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands. In the chaos before the flight, Robie’s name wasn’t entered in the manifest. So when the plane goes down over the vast Pacific Ocean, no one knows to look for her.

Stranded on a tiny raft with Max, an unconscious pilot, Robie’s chances of survival are slim. They have no water and only a small bag of skittles to eat as they drift on the open sea waiting for rescue. An uninhabited island might allow refuge from the sharks, but with little understanding of wilderness survival, Robie has little hope of living there long. It will take all her wits and courage to find rescue.

As I started reading this book, I worried about two things happening: one, Robie and the pilot, a young man in his mid-twenties forming a romantic relationship, or two, the pilot basically taking charge and making all the decisions and telling Robie what to do so that she becomes more of a passive character in her own story. Thankfully, neither of these things happened. Max’s injuries make him unable to help her very much throughout the story. Though his character serves an important role, he doesn’t dominate the tale, and Robie is clearly the hero.

The writing was solid but a little bit flat, for me. I had a hard time pinpointing what wasn’t working, but I think it was that some of the intense scenes, like the crash, were so brief that I didn’t really have time to emerge myself in them and react. The narrative worked because Robie was in shock, but I think I would have gotten into the story more with more detail in those moments. Over all it was good. I’d recommend for maybe fifth through seventh graders.

Language Content
No profanity. A few instances of brief crude language.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
A man on the street grabs Robie, but she escapes. A violent storm causes her plane to crash. She and an injured man survive on a life raft. The crash doesn’t have a whole lot of scary details. It’s straightforward but pretty brief.

Drug Content
References to a drunk driving accident that killed a teenage girl.

Review: The Firebug of Balrog County by David Oppegaard

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

The Firebug of Balrog County by David Oppegaard
Flux Books
Published: September 8, 2015

Since his mother’s death, the firebug has come to live inside Mack. He knows it’s wrong, but when the bug gets an itch, he can’t ignore the urge to burn something. Then he meets a girl battling her own darkness. Her admiration only fuels his pyromania, and when his grandfather, the town mayor, sets out to stop the anonymous firebug, Mack knows his adventure must come to an end. As the firebug gets harder and harder to deny, he can only hope he won’t end up watching his whole future go up in flames.

Normally this sort of dark, angsty story packed with wry witty humor would be exactly my cup of tea. I’m not sure if it was Mack’s deep anger or his flip attitude that put me off, but I found it really hard to connect with him. About halfway through the story, once it’s clear how much he loves his sister and loved his mom, he started to win me over. What remained a hurdle was the sheer amount of swearing and crudity. I read a lot of books that have profanity in them, and it usually doesn’t bother me. The quantity of profanity in this book really felt gratuitous. I wished more than once that Mack’s mother HAD been around to wash his mouth out with soap, or that his father would man up and attempt it himself.

Despite those issues, I thought the plot was tight. I figured there were a couple of ways I could see the story resolving (both pretty cliché), and the real ending totally came out of left field but made perfect sense. Overall I’d say it was okay, but I would probably not read it again.

Language Content
Extreme profanity and crude language used frequently.

Sexual Content
Mack rides around in a car with a girl and has an erection. His description of how this could become a problem if she notices, etc, is a bit comical. Mack has sex with a girl a couple of times – the act itself isn’t described. The girl denies him any sort of relationship commitment.

Spiritual Content
Since his mom’s illness and death, Mack has some pretty deep (and understandable) anger toward God. At one point late in his mother’s illness, he was desperate enough to pray to God for healing for her. But she died soon after, and he remains convinced his pleas were unheard or ignored.

Violence
There are some references to hunting. Mack and his grandfather go bow hunting. A boy is nearly shot with arrows from a hunting bow. A deer runs in front of the car, causing an accident, but no one is injured.

Drug Content
Mack drinks alcohol with his father’s knowledge and consent, despite the fact that he’s underage. He also works at a local bar on Friday and Saturday nights.

Review: I Crawl Through It by A. S. King

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

I Crawl Through It
by A. S. King
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Four teens battle inner traumas from grief to anxiety to neglect. Stanzi’s parents compulsively visit sites of school shootings. China has eaten herself. Lansdale tells outlandish lies that make her hair grow. Gustav is busy assembling an invisible helicopter from a kit the bush man gave him. The bush man has all the answers. He knows the place Gustav and Stanzi can go, a place that has answers for them, too. Escape seems like the perfect solution, until it isn’t.

Honestly, I so didn’t get this book. I wanted to like it. I liked pieces of it. I think each character individually had a really fascinating story. I just didn’t really understand how they fit together and why they were all stories in the same book. Also, I kept expecting the odd stuff to be revealed as metaphors for something. I thought maybe this layer of fantasy would be pulled back to reveal a layer of reality that made sense beneath it – like Neal Shusterman’s Challenger Deep.

That doesn’t happen, though. The story remains sort of this weird urban Alice in Wonderland, where the lines between reality and I’m not even sure what – fantasy? Hallucination? – blur and loop back on themselves.

The narrative is strong and each character is profoundly unique, so there are some really powerful elements present. But I couldn’t get past feeling left hanging, waiting for things to click into place and make some kind of sense. I felt like I missed the boat somehow.

If you’re looking for an intense emotional read where nothing is predictable and the plot really takes you outside the box, I Crawl Through It will not disappoint. If you need a little more sense and reason in your fiction, it may not be the book for you. Try Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman or We Were Liars by E. Lockhart if you’re looking for something different about mental illness.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
A man lives in a bush near Stanzi’s house. He wears a trench coat but is naked underneath, and sometimes appears to expose himself. Stanzi kisses him, and there are hints that he may be having sex with some teen girls, but it’s never described. Patricia lives with Gary and he asks her for sex, but she makes excuses.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
This isn’t really violence, but Stanzi is obsessed with biology and dissecting things, especially frogs. She doesn’t harm anything living.

Drug Content
The man who lives in the bush sells lemonade with or without roofies. Stanzi believes this is a joke. It’s never specified.

Review and Giveaway: One by Sarah Crossan

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

One by Sarah Crossan
Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Publishing
Published: September 15, 2015

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Grace and Tippy, Tippy and Grace.

It’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, even for Grace and her sister. One pair of legs carries them, their arms looped around on another for support. Born as conjoined twins, they’ve never been apart, and they never wish to be separated. When they’re forced to attend school for the first time after being homeschooled all their lives, Grace and Tippy predict the same ruthless gawking and cruelty from their classmates. Two friends open a doorway to a life far more normal than they ever expected possible. Then their health takes a sharp turn, and the one thing Grace and Tippy have never considered becomes the choice that may save their lives.

Within the sparse, moving poetry that depicts each scene of One, Crossan establishes both Grace and Tippy’s individuality and their unity. I felt the companionship, dependence, and frustration it sometimes caused within the lines. It was easy to imagine the terror that would come from imagining life apart from one another.

Yet this isn’t a story swallowed by what it’s like to live as conjoined twins. The rest of the girls’ lives – relationships with parents and their sister – also fills the pages of the tale. And they don’t have perfect little families and perfect little friends. There are some big issues, which really also helped ground the idea that these girls are no freakshow – they’re like any close sisters might be. They just happen to share more than clothes and hair supplies.

The ending is a little bit predictable, but honestly, I got so wrapped up in the emotions that Grace, our narrator, experiences that I really didn’t care. I needed to walk every page with her to the very end. It is a journey well-worth taking.

Fill out the form below to enter the giveaway for your very own copy of ONE!

Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Sexual Content
Grace recalls with frustration some inappropriate curiosity about her and her sister’s body – “how many vaginas do you have?” A girl and boy kiss.

Spiritual Content
After a terrible disappointment in church, Grace’s family does not participate in any spiritual practices. They remain angry, saying that God would not be welcome at their funerals.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
Grace and Tippy drink alcohol with friends (even after their doctor warns them that it poses an extreme health risk to them) and eat a brownie containing marijuana.

 

About the Author

Sarah Crossan is Irish. She graduated with a degree in Philosophy and Literature before training as an English and Drama teacher at Cambridge University and worked to promote creative writing in schools before leaving teaching to write full time.

She completed her Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Warwick in 2003 and in 2010 received an Edward Albee Fellowship for writing.

She spent several years living and teaching high school in New Jersey before moving to London.

Learn more about author Sarah Crossan and One at Once Upon a Twilight where Leydy is hosting a Q&A today!

One Book Giveaway

Enter here to win a free copy of One by Sarah Crossan and share in the joy and mystery of this tale of identity and love. This giveaway is hosted by The Story Sanctuary and Once Upon a Twilight.
a Rafflecopter giveaway