Category Archives: Book Review and Content

Review: Never Said by Carol Lynch Williams

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

Never Said by Carol Lynch WilliamsNever Said
Carol Lynch Williams
Zondervan

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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: Shades of Doon by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

Shades of Doon
Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon
Blink YA/Zondervan
Published: September 1, 2015

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As Vee embraces her role as Doon’s Queen, she looks forward to the day she and Jamie will be able to rule together. Her best friend Kenna still searches for her own place in the kingdom. Just as Kenna begins to feel she’s found her niche, a dark force boots both girls from their beloved land and drops them back in the real world. As if facing the shock of their old, broken lives wasn’t enough, all signs indicate that this is just the beginning of a new threat. Together with the MacCrae boys, they’ll have to face an old enemy once again, one who’s determined to have the rule of Doon for herself.

Vee and Kenna are very different, but their friendship makes them each stronger. I liked the dynamics between them, where Kenna kept Vee from taking herself too seriously and Vee kept Kenna from losing faith in herself. The circle of friends and advisers added interest, too. I definitely wanted to know more about each of them. I haven’t read either of the earlier books in this series, so I may have to do that in the hopes that some of these other characters get a little more stage time.

I also really enjoyed the references to musicals and theater that were sprinkled throughout the story. Though I’m far from a theater buff, I picked up on several of them, and it felt like being in on a joke or something. I thought it was a nice touch.

While I found myself captured by the idyllic landscape of the story, I felt like it lost tension in a couple of places. One is after the girls are booted out of Doon, which is resolved in a snap once the boys arrive. The other is following an attack by an unknown enemy. The attack ends and everyone kind of dusts themselves off and moves on. I was like, wait, what?! Is the enemy still out there? What’s going on?? But… no one else really seemed too worried. So that was a little confusing.

There was also quite a bit of kissing in this story. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for a bit of smooching, especially when I’ve been rooting for the romance to finally blossom for the entire story. This was more like, the couple has already fallen in love and it’s kind of just happily ever after on rinse and repeat. I would have liked to see more tension or conflict between the couples to keep me guessing and hoping. However, if I’d been a reader from the very beginning of the series, I might still be happy-sighing every time a well-earned lip-smack happens. So it could just be me. And the authors take things up a notch toward the end, definitely creating some anticipation for the next book.

Language Content
No profanity.

Sexual Content
Lots of scenes that include kissing. There’s one moment where it gets pretty intense and the characters stop themselves from taking things further, wanting to respect the boundaries they’ve set for their relationship which include waiting to have sex until marriage.

Spiritual Content
The Protector seems to be the name the Doonians use to refer to God. They believe that some have a calling to live out their lives in the kingdom of Doon, and that calling involves being joined with a soul mate.

Violence
A witch threatens the Doonian people. No graphic details beyond an admiring description of Duncan or Jamie’s rippling muscles.

Drug Content
None.

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

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Review: On a Clear Day by Walter Dean Myers

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

On a Clear Day
Walter Dean Myers
Crown Books for Young Readers
Published: September 23, 2014

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Since her mother’s death, Dahlia has simply survived. On her own in a rundown apartment, she waits for a way to make her life mean more. Then two boys offer her a chance to make a difference. She joins other teen prodigies in brainstorming a strategy to take down C-8, a group of corporations that have the world in a stranglehold. But just as Dahlia and her team stumble onto something big, a big-shot terrorist comes to town. The team knows he must be stopped, but taking him on might simply be playing into the bigger plans of C-8.

I requested an ARC for this book via NetGalley but didn’t get it. Based on the description posted there and on Goodreads, I thought this story would be more like X-Men teens meets The Net (1995, Sandra Bullock, etc.) Now that I’ve read the story, I get where the blurb was going, but I’m not sure it’s the best representation of the tale itself. I wonder if revealing the fact that the narrator is a girl was thought to be off-putting to potential male readership? Pure speculation.

What I liked about the story was that it pulled a lot of different elements together. The cast of characters shows a lot of racial diversity and delivers it with authenticity. In the same way, the team Dahlia joins also shows a lot of intellectual diversity, showcasing different areas of expertise and how they bring a unique perspective to each problem the group faces. To me this also echoed the same message of value and equality about the characters’ ethnic backgrounds: we all bring value. We may not agree on things, but in order to succeed at saving the world, we have to work together and trust each other.

I expected a lot of fast-paced action and suspense, and there was definitely tension building as the story unfolded, but this is more about unique teens dialoguing together over a plan to stop the bad guys from running the show. They do make progress, but not in the ways they necessarily expected, and ultimately, they don’t accomplish their goal. I think I would have liked this book more if there had been a stronger forward push carrying the story along. The group assembles with a vague goal in mind, which keeps things a bit wishy-washy until well into the tale.

This is the first book by Myers that I’ve read, and most of the reviews I skimmed through recommend his other books over this one. Monster has been on my list for a long time, so it’s possible I’ll give that one a read and reevaluate this story again.

Language Content
Strong profanity used with moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
One reference to a man putting his hand between a waitress’s legs. It’s inappropriate and another man calls him out for it.

Spiritual Content
A priest oversees a funeral. Hard times have fallen on humanity and many have died from lost hope. Dahlia makes a comment about having craved her own death before out of a simple desire to “move to the next plane” of existence.

Violence
Groups of vigilantes and terrorists wreak havoc on the population. Dahlia’s team goes head to head with a terrorist group, exchanging fire with them. Resulting deaths and injuries are briefly described. Some soldiers are children. In one instance, a boy is caught in razor wire. Dahlia and her friends watch helplessly as the wire kills him.

Drug Content
A girl in her early twenties drinks a glass of white wine at a café. At a meeting with gang leaders, someone passes marijuana to Dahlia, who refuses to smoke it. Then a woman uses a needle to inject drugs in front of Dahlia.

Review: The Raft by S. A. Bodeen

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

The Raft by S. A. Bodeen
Feiwel & Friends

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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.