Review: Born Scared by Kevin Brooks

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

Born Scared by Kevin BrooksBorn Scared
Kevin Brooks
Candlewick Press
Published on September 11, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Born Scared
Elliot is terrified of almost everything.

From the moment he was born, his life has been governed by acute fear. The only thing that keeps his terrors in check are the pills that he takes every day.

It’s Christmas Eve, there’s a snowstorm and Elliot’s medication is almost gone. His mum nips out to collect his prescription. She’ll only be 10 minutes – but when she doesn’t come back, Elliot must face his fears and try to find her. She should only be 400 meters away. It might as well be 400 miles…

My Review
I wanted to read this book because the premise sounded really intriguing. Right away, there are high stakes and it has that man versus himself thing going on that I really love in stories.

Some of Elliot’s experiences made total sense with his fear issues and the way people would normally react in those situations. But as the story progressed, some of the experiences Elliot had got more and more extreme, and I couldn’t decide if he was hallucinating or imagining the worst-case outcome in a given situation and reporting it as if it happened, or if bad things really were happening to him.

Other characters have short scenes from their points of view, and those seemed to support Elliot’s version of events, so I guess that’s what happened? Unless those were imaginary people he created? I don’t know. That seems farfetched.

As Elliot continued the search for his mom, he found a boldness and courage that was inspiring. I liked the way the story followed multiple threads which converged in a single scene.

On the other hand, I struggled with some of the events. I feel like either Elliot must have imagined certain parts of the story (because his actions seemed so out of character and because so many things seemed like the worst-case scenario playing out) or they were real events that seem too farfetched for me to believe.

Fans of A. S. King would probably really like this story. While I found it really interesting and liked Elliot’s character, I find I’m left with this feeling that I didn’t really get the story somehow.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Elliot talks to his twin sister, Ellamay, who died during their mother’s pregnancy.

Violent Content
Strong fear-based images. Two men tie up two women. The women have bruised faces, like they fought their attackers. A man with a gun and knife threatens a kid. Someone attacks a man with a rock, hitting him in the head. A car accident startles several witnesses.

Drug Content
A man drinks alcohol at a bar, and a woman he met there drugs him without his knowledge. He experiences some hallucinations and behaves in a way out of his normal character while on the drugs.

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

Review: The Echo Room by Parker Peevyhouse

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

The Echo Room
Parker Peevyhouse
Tor Teen
Published on September 11, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About The Echo Room
Rett wakes on the floor of a cold, dark room. He doesn’t know how he got there, only that he’s locked in. He’s not alone—a girl named Bryn is trapped in the room with him. When she finds a mysterious bloodstain and decides she doesn’t trust Rett, he tries to escape on his own—

Rett wakes on the floor of the same cold, dark room. He doesn’t trust Bryn, but he’ll have to work with her if he ever hopes to escape. They try to break out of the room—

Rett and Bryn hide in a cold, dark room. Safe from what’s outside.

But they’re not alone.

My Review
I feel like this book should be an episode of Black Mirror. (Disclaimer: I’ve only seen two episodes of Black Mirror because I’m waaaaaay too much of a fraidy cat for things that qualify as horror-ish.). The Echo Room definitely had that otherworldly, spooky, outside-the-box feel to it. I loved that!

While some parts of the story are simple—a boy, a girl, a quest to find an item—other parts are not so simple. Rett and Bryn have really fractured memories. They make assumptions from the clues around them, but we start to piece things together almost before they do, which creates all sorts of interesting nail-biting tension.

The beginning has a kind of repetitive rhythm to it (on purpose), but the way it’s written, you notice different things each time a repetition happens, so it feels like peeling back layers of the mystery, and that feeling kept me reading page after page.

I found Rett and Bryn both really likeable. There’s a good balance between the plot with its sci-fi elements and the characters, which is a must for me when I read sci-fi. So The Echo Room definitely satisfied there.

Though this is a very different kind of story, I think The Echo Room would appeal to readers who like Hayley Stone or Claudia Gray. I highly recommend it.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Fewer than ten instances of profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. A man receives a head injury from another person. At one point, a boy discovers a mutilated dead body. Description is brief. A flare gun is used as a weapon.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Be Affected by Riley Choquette

Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, , , , ,

Be Affected
Riley Choquette
Published on June 6, 2018

Amazon | Goodreads

About Be Affected
Be Affected charges young men, especially in the Church, to embrace the value of dating as an aspect of divine image-bearing and offers practical advice on how to do it well. Written from the perspective of a young, single Christian man, this books offers a theological explanation of the importance and goodness of dating, highly-practical advice on asking for and planning effective dates, and honest encouragement for when things don’t go as planned.

From the Introduction:
Books about dating all face one of two problems: either the author is married, or the author is single. In the first case, it’s too easy to think ‘Well sure, that approach worked for you, but that’s just one story.’ What if the married author has fallen out of touch, and he or she doesn’t understand how things are these days? In the case of a single author, even more doubts arise: ‘How can I be sure whether any of this works, if it hasn’t worked out for you?’

That kind of thinking assumes that the goal of dating is finding a spouse, which is true. However, even though the ultimate indicator of success in dating is marriage, there are plenty of ways to be successful without yet having found a spouse. This book will detail some of those ways.

My Review
I really like that this book gives practical advice for early stages of dating. It’s easy to follow, quick to read, and has a lighthearted, approachable tone. I thought the section with ideas for first dates was great, and so was the checklist of things to do before going on a date. (I kind of wish I could go back in time and give that list to a few of the boys I dated, but that’s a whole other story!)

Another really helpful part was the section that talked about how to ask a girl for a date in the first place. I think the simple, direct, no-pressure approach is a perfect model for people as they approach someone they want to date. The emphasis on community– having friends and family to cheer you on and back you up or listen to you process how the date went– as so important really resonated with me, too. Having a good community around you makes a huge difference.

All in all, this book makes a great resource for young Christian men looking to begin dating relationships. I think most if not all of the counsel could apply to girls as well, though it’s addressed specifically to guys. I enjoyed reading Be Affected, and especially enjoyed the part of the book the title comes from, in which the author talks about the importance of being sincere and vulnerable, actually letting others get to know the real you in relationships. Great stuff.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
No racial details given. The author is speaking most directly to young Christian men looking to date women.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to kissing. Vague references to sex.

Spiritual Content
The author quotes a couple of verses, one about the how finding a wife is a good thing, according to Proverbs. He encourages readers to pray about any anxiety over upcoming dates or asking someone on a date. More than one section discusses abstinence as the best way to prepare for a marriage relationship and the basis for this lifestyle in the Bible.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

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

Top Ten Tuesday: Books by My Favorite Authors I Still Haven’t Read

Lists, News and Fun, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

Happy Top Ten Tuesday!

Obviously the first challenge of a Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) post like this is to narrow down to only ten favorite authors. That took a lot more time than I thought it would. Because there are SO MANY great authors out there, especially in the young adult and middle grade market. But I soldiered through and made my list of ten authors and from there, picking the books to share was pretty easy. Here’s my list.

A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom

I LOVED Not If I See You First, and I can’t believe I haven’t read this book yet. Buried secrets, unresolved friendship issues, and a main character with bipolar disorder. I’m in.

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

Okay, I’m granting myself a teeny bit of a pass on this one, since I just finished reading (actually, listening to) Scythe a couple weeks ago. I LOVED it– thought it married the creativity of Unwind with the powerful writing of Challenger Deep. But this one is on my “please read this before December” list!

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

My favorite Marchetta books are the Lumatere Chronicles, which are fantasy, but I also loved Jellicoe Road, so this one has been on my list for a long time. The descriptions of wacky students and family troubles packed into a private school setting sounds like it will make for a great read.

Invictus by Ryan Graudin

Someone recently told me this is better than Walled City, which I totally adored. I’ve been wanting to read more of Graudin’s books, and now that I keep hearing such great things about this one, I kind of have to do it. I mean, time-traveling pirates? Sounds pretty incredible.

Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas

I fell in love with Dumas’s writing in It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel – the story of an Iranian-American girl who lives in California during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. This is Dumas’s memoir of her life growing up in America. I don’t read tons of nonfiction, but I’ve been really interested to read this one because I loved the voice and writing in the other book so much.

Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills

I have no excuse for not having read this book yet. I’ve had a gorgeous hard cover copy since Valentine’s Day, and the two other books by Emma Mills that I’ve read both had me laughing and bawling my eyes out. They’re so fantastic. Plus, it’s a book about a high school production of Midsummer Night’s Dream – two more things I LOVE! So obviously totally going to be a win once I crack the cover.

Fighting Ruben Wolfe by Markus Zusak

I’ve read every other book by Markus Zusak except this one. Why? Because back during my big Zusak reading binge (after I devoured The Book Thief), I couldn’t get a copy of this one from the library. It’s about two brothers who get roped into boxing each other and the internal conflicts one faces through being forced to fight his brother.

Death Marked by Leah Cypess

I think this is the only book by Cypess that I haven’t read yet, either. I was once in a writer’s group with her and read an early version of her debut, Mistwood, which quickly became a favorite! I love the way she marries these deep, serious fantasy worlds with lots of political intrigue and a few super sassy characters to shake things up.

Black Dove White Raven by Elizabeth Wein

I’ve been hooked on this author since first reading Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire. I’ve heard great things about this book, too. I’m super intrigued by the 1930s setting first in America and then Ethiopia. This is another I’m really hoping I can squeeze in before the end of the year.

Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

I love The Star-Touched Queen series, so I’ve had my eye on this book since I first heard it was under contract. I wasn’t able to get an ARC, and I haven’t managed to read a finished copy yet, either. I love how Chokshi pulls Indian mythology and legend into her stories.

Who’s your favorite author?

Do you have a list of favorite authors? Have you read all their books, or do you have a catch-up list, like I do?

Review: The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden

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The Benefits of Being an Octopus
Ann Braden
Sky Pony Press
Published on September 4, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About The Benefits of Being an Octopus
Some people can do their homework. Some people get to have crushes on boys. Some people have other things they’ve got to do.

Seventh-grader Zoey has her hands full as she takes care of her much younger siblings after school every day while her mom works her shift at the pizza parlor. Not that her mom seems to appreciate it. At least there’s Lenny, her mom’s boyfriend—they all get to live in his nice, clean trailer.

At school, Zoey tries to stay under the radar. Her only friend Fuchsia has her own issues, and since they’re in an entirely different world than the rich kids, it’s best if no one notices them.

Zoey thinks how much easier everything would be if she were an octopus: eight arms to do eight things at once. Incredible camouflage ability and steady, unblinking vision. Powerful protective defenses.

Unfortunately, she’s not totally invisible, and one of her teachers forces her to join the debate club. Even though Zoey resists participating, debate ultimately leads her to see things in a new way: her mom’s relationship with Lenny, Fuchsia’s situation, and her own place in this town of people who think they’re better than her. Can Zoey find the courage to speak up, even if it means risking the most stable home she’s ever had?

My Review
This book has so many cool things about it. I loved that Zoey joins the debate club at school (even though at first she’s an unwilling participant). Her natural talent shows in the way she approaches problems and cares for her siblings, which made it so easy to cheer for her as she battled anxiety about speaking in front of her classmates. I loved her teacher, too. So many moments between Zoey and her teacher had me all teary-eyed. They share a kind of understanding that only someone who’s been through a similar thing can share, and it obviously changes Zoey’s life.

Zoey’s relationship with her mom also gripped me. Because her mom works, Zoey cares for her siblings a lot of the time, and sometimes relates to her mom more as a peer rather than as parent to child. Some of that is kind of sad, but it also showed the way that your relationship with a parent changes as you reach middle school age and start thinking about things differently. I loved the way Zoey’s debate club strategies became the tools she used at home, and the way those same lessons helped her uncover unhealthy patterns in her family.

In the acknowledgements, the author talks about how someone asked her to write about rural poverty so that kids growing up in those situations would have a chance to see themselves in a book. I’m so glad she did. This book made me think of so many kids.

One of the really fun things about the book is the way Zoey uses imagery about octopus behavior to describe how she feels at different times or things she wishes she could do (like have extra hands to manage her three small siblings). I loved those descriptions and how they appeared consistently through the book.

I actually picked up a copy of this book after reading another blogger’s review of it, and I’m so very glad I did. I need to go back and comment on the review say thanks! The Benefits of Being an Octopus definitely deserves a read.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Someone fires shots in a school parking lot near students. After the gun incident, students argue about whether guns are good or bad (Zoey believes guns are tools that can be used for good things like hunting while a few other students argue that no one should have guns.). A girl is physically threatened by a man. A man verbally abuses a woman.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Sadie by Courtney Summers

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

Sadie
Courtney Summers
Wednesday Books
Published on September 4, 2018

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Sadie

Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meagre clues to find him.

When West McCray—a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America—overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late.

My Review

I was a little nervous about reading this book as I read reviews that mentioned how much it dealt with sexual abuse as I have a really low threshold for being able to read things like that. Details about those experiences really undo me.

Anyway, after my Q&A with Courtney Summers in which she talked about her reasons for writing this book, I wanted to try to read it anyway, and I’m honestly glad I did.

I feel like I’ve said this before, but I have so much respect for Summers and her commitment to be a voice for young women who are often forgotten. Lots of times stories like this, about missing girls, sensationalize the details of the disappearance. I’ve read books where I felt like the author almost revels in constructing the details of torture and graphic abuse.

You won’t find those gory details in Sadie. And you might think that would steal some of the horror or power of the story, but honestly, it doesn’t. Instead, it keeps the story focused on what matters: the humanity of the characters, the fact that they are so much more than abuse victims.

And that humanity coupled with the raw, high-intensity emotional responses of the characters punched straight into me as I read the darkest parts of the story. I felt horror at what happened to Sadie and the other victims of abuse. But I didn’t have to endure the details of what happened to them in order to feel that horror. Sharing in Sadie’s brokenness and horror were powerful enough, especially in the hands of a writer like Courtney Summers. Y’all, she is a force.

Conclusion

Sadie is probably not for everyone. It’s got some rough language, and it’s definitely a dark story. But it does remind us that these things happen to girls way too often. And that way too often we forget them once the glow of the news headlines dims. I’ll remember this one for a long time.

If you liked VANISHING GIRLS by Lauren Oliver, you definitely want to check out SADIE.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Major characters are white or not physically described. Sadie has a stutter and deals with a lot of judgment about it.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used regularly throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between two girls. References to sex. References to sexual abuse, including sex with children. None of those things are described in detail, though in one scene, a man stands in the bathroom watching a girl crouched naked in a tub. At another point, a character finds pictures depicting child sex abuse. The photos aren’t described, but they’re clearly horrifying to the characters who see them.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to sexual abuse and prostitution. A girl’s body is found in an orchard. We know she died from blunt force trauma to the head. Sadie leaves on a journey to find and kill a man she believes killed her sister. In another scene, a man attacks a girl, slamming her head into the steering wheel of her car and smashing her face on a concrete driveway. During one scene, a girl accidentally cuts her arm on window glass. At another point, a girl realizes she’s been hit in the back of the head and collapses. Several people find themselves threatened at knifepoint. One man is stabbed.

Drug Content
Sadie’s mom is an alcoholic and drug addict. She meets other addicts through the story. At one point, she and some teens order drinks at a bar. At least one of the teens drives home drunk.

Note: I received a free copy of SADIE in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links which do not cost you anything to use but which help support this blog.