Review: The Cat King of Havana by Tom Crosshill

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

The Cat King of Havana
Tom Crosshill
Katherine Tegen Books

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Tired of his geeky reputation as “that cat guy” for his successful Lolcat site, Rick decides it’s time to get out from behind the computer and live a little. After meeting a beautiful girl who dances a mean salsa, Rick decides to take dance lessons. The lessons don’t go as smoothly as Rick had hoped. In fact, he’s terrible. But that doesn’t stop him from dancing or from pursuing Ana. When an opportunity comes for him to make a trip to Havana to reconnect with his heritage and learn about his mom, Rick leaps at the chance and brings Ana along with him. But Cuba isn’t all beaches and fun. The longer they stay, the more Rick and Ana witness the struggle of the people under strict government rules. When Rick dares to defy the Cuban government to help a friend, he learns that some sacrifices come with costs to more than himself, and sometimes the price of principles proves too high to pay.

Rick is a true underdog. If you’re looking for the traditional Dirty Dancing type story where the inexperienced dancer suddenly blossoms into an expert just as the romance swells to crescendo, be warned: this isn’t that kind of story. In fact, it’s better. I loved that Rick struggled and worked to gain any competency at dance. It felt real, and a lot of times added moments of humor and insight. I like that his relationship with Ana doesn’t follow a simple romantic path. It made for another fresh element to The Cat King of Havana.

The parts of the story set in Havana definitely made me want to travel, but more than that, they made me think about the Cuban people. I felt like Rick’s journey brought me along with him from tourist to something more in a way that few stories have done for me before.

I found it interesting that instead of taking the usual rebel-slash-principles-mean-everything approach, Crosshill explores a slightly different angle. When Rick breaks rules, he realizes that it’s not only himself, but his family who would bear the consequences. He might be able to hop on a flight to New York with a clear conscience, but he’d be leaving his aunt and cousins behind to pay a high price for his actions. He wrestles long and hard over what to do. I really appreciated that about him. In fact, the one moment of the story that really irritated me is when Ana tells Rick that he’s not a nice guy. And the truth is, he does make some choices that he later reflects on as being bad decisions, but at his core, Rick really is a good guy who cares about the people around him very deeply. I loved that about him. I think he needed to be that way in order for me to truly understand and respect the decisions he made to protect his family.

Overall, I enjoyed The Cat King of Havana quite a bit. Dance fans and fans of stories with overseas settings should definitely give this one a read. In some ways it reminded me a little bit of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, though this story is cleaner and doesn’t dive quite as far into politics as Oscar Wao does.

Cultural Elements
Rick’s mother was Cuban and his father is German. Rick returns to Cuba to reconnect with his mom’s family. With him goes Ana Cabrera, a Puerto Rican girl and Rick’s salsa dance partner. Rick’s best friend is gay, but his experience doesn’t play a large role in the story.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Most of the swearing and crude language is in Spanish. There are only a few curses in English. The Spanish profanity occurs with moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content
Rick’s cousin Yosvany has loads of suggestions on how to get Rick a girl. Most of his advice is in Spanish, and Rick warns against looking up a translation because it’s usually pretty dirty. Yosvany believes in saying whatever’s necessary to get a girl into his bed. Rick experiments with a few of Yosvany’s more romantic suggestions, but ultimately finds lying is not to his taste.

Rick has sex with a girl—no details of the event itself other than that it didn’t last long. He describes losing his virginity as feeling a weight lifted that he didn’t realize he was carrying. He’s definitely felt a lot of pressure to achieve that goal, and he’s not entirely happy about how it all happened, in part because of his own behavior.

Rick witnesses another couple kissing and feels uncomfortable about it.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Rick watches a video taken by a witness to a girl’s kidnapping.

Drug Content
Beer and cocktails are served at some of the clubs Rick visits. He and his friends drink alcohol at places that don’t ask for ID.

Ana’s father is an alcoholic. Her parents separated for a time, but now her mom has let her dad move back in, and Ana worries about what he will do. When one of Rick and Ana’s dance teachers shows up for class drunk, she becomes furious and refuses to dance for him anymore.

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Review: Freedom’s Just Another Word by Caroline Stellings

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

Freedom’s Just Another Word
Caroline Stellings
Second Story Press
Available September 6, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Summary (from Goodreads)

The year Louisiana – Easy for short – meets Janis Joplin is the year everything changes. Easy is a car mechanic in her dad’s shop, but she can sing the blues like someone twice her age. So when she hears that Janis Joplin is passing through her small town of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Easy is there with her heart – and her voice – in hand. It’s 1970 and Janis Joplin is an electrifying blues-rock singer at the height of her fame – and of her addictions. Yet she recognizes Easy’s talent and asks her to meet her in Texas to sing. So Easy begins an unusual journey that will change everything.

Review

One of my favorite things about Caroline Stellings is her ability to tell a story with huge emotional layering. At its surface, this is a really simple tale about a girl who has a dream and takes a road trip. The backdrop of America in 1970 gives the story some added intensity. I loved that Janis Joplin makes an appearance, and even more that Easy talks so much about Billie Holiday and Bessie Green as influences of her music.

The power punches come in the characters. I don’t want to give anything away, but there were several moments where things unfolded in this perfect way. Like when you make complex origami and on the last step, pull the piece into its final shape, so that suddenly it transforms from being a bunch of sequential folds to a crane or dragon or something so much more than paper. That’s how it felt reading Freedom’s Just Another Word. Like being part of a transformation.

I loved that meeting Janis didn’t suddenly propel Easy to fame. It was a significant moment on her journey, and she learned a lot about herself and others through her encounter. But she had so much more to learn and to give. She just also had to find the courage to take those steps.

At any rate, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. (Check content to make sure it’s okay for your readers as there is some language.) If you enjoy fiction about music or musicians, definitely get yourself a copy of Freedom’s Just Another Word. I loved it.

Cultural Elements
Easy was raised by African American parents. Her mother is white and her father is black. Where she lives in Saskatoon there aren’t very many black people. She experiences some prejudice as a child. When she drives through Texas, she’s threatened and thrown out of a restaurant because of her race. There’s some discussion about places it’s unsafe for her to go, especially at night. Some places won’t let her in, others treat her coldly.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Easy wonders how her mom forgave her father for having an affair with a white woman.

Spiritual Content
Easy meets two nuns and helps them buy a car. One is judgmental and cynical. The other is kind and welcoming to Easy. Later she meets a Reverend Mother who shows a great deal of compassion for the people around her, which moves Easy.

Violent Content
A man threatens Easy’s life if she doesn’t leave his restaurant.

Drug Content
Easy meets Janis Joplin and her gang. They clean out a liquor store, many of them already drunk. Janis wants Southern Comfort, and Easy finds it for her. She reflects on Janis’s hard living way of life with some sadness. Later she meets another heroin addict. When Easy sees Janis again, she talks to her about him. Janis seems sad about the man’s predicament, but expresses no desire to change her habits. Not long afterward she’s found dead of a heroin overdose.

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

Review: For This Life Only by Stacey Kade

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

For This Life Only
Stacey Kade
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

A bonfire he had to escape. Ice on a roadway. A night that changes everything for Jacob Palmer. The night his twin brother is killed in a car accident. Jace almost shared his brother’s fate, and in that moment when his heart stopped, there was no light welcoming him to something after. There was only nothing. And now that Jace has survived, he can’t help feeling like fate got it wrong. Eli, the good son, the one who loved everyone around him, the one who made people feel loved, should have been the one to live.

As Jace wrestles with his guilt and the injuries that make his dream of a baseball scholarship an impossibility, his family fractures further. Jace has questions. The kinds of questions a pastor’s kid isn’t supposed to ask. Then he meets Thera and he discovers that perhaps a notorious psychic’s daughter and a prominent pastor’s son have more in common than he could have imagined. But when he stumbles onto Eli’s unfinished business and a dilemma that could destroy his father’s church, Jace realizes he’s facing more than his own questions of faith, but questions of who he is and what it means to do the right thing regardless of who it might hurt.

One of the things I really liked about this book is that it brings faith into the story in a non-preachy way. This isn’t about Jace’s spiritual journey in terms of having a salvation experience or ultimately answering life’s big questions. It’s really only the beginning of that journey in which he begins to take ownership of what he believes.

I liked the genuine conversations that Jace and Thera share. Their relationship definitely felt like one of those life-changing ones, where each person gets to feel seen and truly understood. I liked that Jace’s relationship with his dad is something he continues to wrestle with. That also felt very real, and it was easy to understand how hurtful and frustrating some things between them were. Though this wasn’t my experience as someone raised in a church, I felt like I could see people that I knew in the faces of characters in this story. It definitely captured some of the hallmark fails of church service and politics.

What’s sad in a way is that there isn’t really anyone on the other side whose faith is genuine, who has come through the fire of asking these big questions. I would have liked even a minor character just to kind of nod to the fact that this happens. But it really wasn’t the point of the story, so I can see why the author may have chosen not to show that point-of-view. Jace’s brother is kind of the closest example we have of that, but he’s absent for so much of the story. Overall, I really liked this book. It was a tough read because of how sad the beginning was, but I definitely enjoyed reading it overall.

Cultural Elements
The central characters felt pretty white middle class to me. Thera may be Greek. Her mother is obese. At one point she talks about what that means to her and how that affects the way people see her and the choices she makes.

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

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing and petting between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Jacob wrestles with questions about faith and what happens after death after a life-changing car accident. Though he’s a pastor’s son, he mostly identifies spirituality with rules and pressure to perform a certain way. He discovers that the local psychic’s daughter also feels trapped by the expectations people have about who she is and what she believes. They share a relationship where they allow themselves to question things.

At one point as he’s beginning to question things, Jacob makes a comment about there not being stories in the Bible about people making active choices about what they believe. I find I disagree. It was a minor point not really central to the story, though.

Overall, this is not a story about who’s right or wrong in terms of faith vs psychic energy vs science. There’s some limited exploration of what a life committed to those principles looks like, but the story isn’t really about finding or losing faith. It’s more about appearances and assumptions and finding the courage to live honestly despite what it may do to the expectations others have.

Violent Content
Jacob sustains some serious injuries from a car accident. Not many details of the accident itself. Two boys get into a fist-fight.

Drug Content
Jacob drinks alcohol at a party with his friends.

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

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Top Ten Inspirations for The Cat King of Havana by Tom Crosshill

Guest Post, News and Fun, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

The Cat King of Havana
By Tom Crosshill
Katherine Tegen Books
Available September 6, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads | indiebound | ibooks

Rick Gutierrez is . . . the Cat King of Havana! A cat-video tycoon turned salsa-dancer extraordinaire, he’ll take Cuba by storm, romance the girl of his dreams, and ignite a lolcat revolution!

At least that’s the plan.

It all starts when his girlfriend dumps Rick on his sixteenth birthday for uploading cat videos from his bedroom when he should be out experiencing the real world. Known as “That Cat Guy” at school, Rick isn’t cool and he knows it. He realizes it’s time for a change.

Rick decides joining a salsa class is the answer . . . because of a girl, of course. Ana Cabrera is smart, friendly, and smooth on the dance floor. Rick might be half-Cuban, but he dances like a drunk hippo. Desperate to impress Ana, he invites her to spend the summer in Havana. The official reason: learning to dance. The hidden agenda: romance under the palm trees.

Except Cuba isn’t all sun, salsa, and music. There’s a darker side to the island. As Rick and Ana meet his family and investigate the reason why his mother left Cuba decades ago, they learn that politics isn’t just something that happens to other people. And when they find romance, it’s got sharp edges.

Top Ten Things that Inspired Characters and Scenes in The Cat King of Havana

I asked Tom Crosshill to share ten things that inspired him to create various characters and scenes in his novel, The Cat King of Havana. Here’s his list. If you’ve already read the book, see if you can pick out which scene or character he’s referring to!

  • The sweet, sweet excitement of watching a real master of something — dancing, sports, whatever — and saying — I’m going to do the work to be like that one day!
  • The marvel of attending a Silvio Rodriguez concert live at Carnegie Hall — and realizing how much more each of his songs meant to the native Cubans in the audience.
  • The experience of competing in a dance contest in Cuba as a foreigner — with all the stress, mortification and exhilaration that goes with it.
  • Long night-time walks down the unlit streets of Havana — watching life go on amidst decay and poverty and desperation.
  • The sheer ecstatic thrill of having Los Van Van blast their music at you from mere feet away at Casa de la Musica Galiano in Havana.
  • The frustration of being a beginner dancer who partners try to avoid — and the long-term satisfaction of pressing on regardless.
  • The thrill of having your flight out of Cuba cancelled — and realizing your only alternative is a Soviet plane operated by an airline with a dubious safety record.
  • Going for a night-time swim in the dirty water of the Malecon — because a girl you just met challenged you.
  • The regrettable experience of trying so hard to become cool that you lose a bit of yourself — and hurt others in the process.
  • The satisfaction of training hard at something for hour after hour, day after day, month after month, year after year — often alone, often without recognition — simply because you love what you’re doing.

About Tom Crosshill

Web Site | Twitter

Tom Crosshill’s fiction has been nominated for the Nebula Award (thrice) as well as the Latvian Annual Literature Award. His stories have appeared in venues such as Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Lightspeed. In 2009, he won the Writers of the Future contest. After some years spent in Oregon and New York, he currently lives in his native Latvia. In the past, he has operated a nuclear reactor, translated books and worked in a zinc mine, among other things.

Tom’s young adult novel “The Cat King of Havana” is forthcoming from Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins) in 2016.

Enter to Win One of Three Copies of The Cat King of Havana (US Only)

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Visit the Other Stops on the Tour

Week 1:

8/29: That Artsy Reader Girl – Best Cat Videos

8/30: Rebelle Reads – Review

8/31: Pondering the Prose – Playlist

9/1: He Said Books or Me – Review

9/2: The Story Sanctuary – Top 10

 Week 2:

9/5: Lekeisha the Book Nerd – Review

9/6: The Irish Banana Review – Fast 5

9/7: One Night Book Stand – Review

9/8: Little Reds Reviews – Cat Kings of Little Reds Reviews (Cat Video)

9/9: Live to Read – Review

 

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Monthly Wrap-Up for August 2016

Lists, News and Fun,

The month of August screamed past, packed with the final days of summer, a last-minute vacation, and the start of a new school year. My family spent a long weekend in Hendersonville, NC, which was lovely! And I was able to attend Read Up Greenville and meet some awesome authors. You can read about my experience and see my book haul here.

Here at The Story Sanctuary, things were bustling, too, with lots of reviews and book news. Here’s a quick look at what you may have missed:

Dreadlands: Wolf Moon by Jaimie Engle

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

I loved the way Engle incorporated Viking lore into this story featuring werewolves. I’m not a big reader in the paranormal genre, but I definitely enjoyed reading this book.

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

I’d been seriously anticipating the conclusion of this series, and I’m not sorry I read it. But if I’m honest, I’m a bit disappointed in this book. Yes, we get some satisfying conclusions to some romantic tension, but overall, the ending just didn’t live up to my expectations.

Lightning by Bonnie Calhoun

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

This is the second book in a series. Sometimes you can read the second book without reading the first. I don’t recommend that with this particular series. If you’re going to tackle the Stone Braid Chronicles, I say read Thunder first.

Pirouette (Andari Chronicles #3) by Kenley Davidson

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

I loved this whole series of fairytales retold and would read anything new by Kenley Davidson. There’s some brief, light profanity, but otherwise these books are clean and not to be missed!

Just a Few Inches by Tara St. Pierre

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

While it starts with a girl taking diet pills, this book goes way beyond anorexia to look at body image and teen pressure in a very different way. I liked the unique spin on the topic that St. Pierre gives. She shares more in an author interview found here.

Haven by Katherine Bogle

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

Fantasy with girl power– that’s what I’d call this book. Though some of the plotlines were a little muddled to me, there’s a strong sense of independence and strength from the female cast members. Fans of The Key by Jennifer Anne Davis should check this one out.

Be Light Like a Bird by Monika Schröder

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

Novels which address grief seem to hold a special place in my heart. This one is no exception. I loved the way the author used birdwatching and a love of nature to nurture Wren through the loss of her father.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

Though I read this book much earlier this summer, I’m still not totally sure what I think about it. I liked some things about it. I know a lot of people rave about the series, but I’m not sure I liked it well enough to continue through the other books.

First & Then by Emma Mills

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

This was one of the most fun reads I’ve had in a long time. I liked the charm of it and the way the romance resolves. The strong profanity felt out of place in novel that channels Jane Austen, but other than that, I really liked it.

One Paris Summer by Denise Grover Swank

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

The Paris setting made me swoon (and crave crepes). I enjoyed the window into Sophie’s world of music and her first love, despite a few plot points that I had trouble buying into.

Tell Me Something Real by Calla Devlin

Review to Come | Amazon | Goodreads

Right after reading One Paris Summer, I dove into this other novel about a talented pianist. In this story about sisterhood and betrayal, it’s Vanessa’s music that carries her through the darkest times. The story moved me and definitely took a different direction than I expected.

Have you read any of these books?

If you’ve read these titles, what did you think of them? Which ones on this list look most interesting to you?

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Ten Things I Learned at Read Up Greenville 2016

News and Fun, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,
Book Haul from Read Up Greenville 2016

I haven’t been to a lot of book events, and I’m starting to regret it. As a pretty deep introvert, I much prefer the part of book blogging where I’m sitting quietly in bed or in a comfy chair with a book and possibly a snack, or, even better, a cat in my lap. But as I start to read multiple books by authors or hear about new authors with great new books, I’ve started wanting to get out there and meet authors and listen to what inspired them or how they write such amazing characters and stories. So… my first foray into the wild was a last-minute trip to Read Up! in Greenville, SC on August 6, 2016. I got some great books and had an awesome time listening to authors speak about writing and what inspired the stories they’ve written. Here are some of the things I learned.

1. Jay Asher is pretty hilarious.

He’s one of those guys where you might not realize he’s funny if you aren’t paying attention. He has that cool sort of dry delivery. I listened to his keynote speech in the morning, and it was absolutely awesome. He breezed by some info about the Thirteen Reasons Why Netflix series that’s coming out and his new book What Light which will be out late this fall. (Can’t wait!)

2. Also– did you catch how Thirteen Reasons Why is written like a suspense novel?

Am I the last person to figure this out? I don’t read much suspense, so maybe that’s why it didn’t immediately jump out at me? As soon as he said it, I was like, ohhhhhh…. YES. And wow, what a difference that made. (My Thirteen Reasons Why review is here.)

3. Prepare before meeting an author.

You know how people react to shocking news in really different ways? Apparently my fangirling is more like my mind going completely and utterly blank and then me standing as still as possible and saying almost nothing besides a few profoundly stupid words. So. *facepalm.*

Okay. So I had a massive headache the morning of the event, but I decided to tough it out and go anyway. Then I was almost late arriving, so I went to the keynote and book signing without that magic elixir some of us call coffee. Let me say that I LOVED Thirteen Reasons Why. I’ve read it more than once, even! But do I tell Jay Asher this? No. I mean, honestly, I figure it’s one of those things that stops really meaning so much if you just say, hey, I loved your book. Like, he’s heard that a million times, right? What I wish I’d done: thought of something specific from the book that REALLY mattered to me. Because I think that would have been more meaningful. Instead, I had him sign a generic autograph because I figured I might give it away on my blog. But…. I’m afraid it may have sounded like all I cared about was capitalizing on how much other people like the book or like I couldn’t have cared less. Which is so untrue. Jay Asher, you are awesome! Forgive my zombie introvertedness. I’ll make cue cards for myself next time.

4. Author Panels = AWESOME!

The next thing I did was go to a panel with Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Ryan Graudin, Carrie Ryan, and Tiffany Schmidt called Bad Blood. This was a great idea. If you have a chance to go to panels like this, DO IT. I loved getting the chance to hear different authors talking about a single topic. Super fun!

5. Jennifer Lynn Barnes only likes music to which she knows all the words. Also, she listens to one song while she writes a particular novel.

All the panelists had a chance to talk about how they use music in their writing process. This stuck out to me, though. I think it’s cool and also funny. I don’t typically listen to music while I write (I find the words distracting) but I wondered if listening to one song again and again would work for me. I might try it.

6. Ryan Graudin had me at Social Justice.

Listening to her talk about living overseas in Cambodia and how that inspired her to write The Walled City made me want to ask her so many more questions. I have an ebook copy of Wolf Road and bought and asked her to sign a paperback copy of The Walled City, but I haven’t had a chance to read either of those yet. Also, dude. I probably owe her an apology, too, because I zombie-gawked at her, too, instead of having anything coherent or useful to say. Worse, still, I finally found my feet when I talked to Carrie Ryan, who was sitting right next to her, so it probably looked like it was sort of personal. Nooooo. I felt horrible.

7. Carrie Ryan wrote Forest of Hands and Teeth as a NaNoWriMo novel. How cool is that? (Actually, Marissa Meyer wrote Cinder in NaNo, too.)

My coffee must have kicked in as I stood in line to talk to Carrie Ryan. I thought of a specific thing I wanted to tell her, and that made things much easier. What did I say? I told her two things. One, I asked her to sign a copy of The Map to Everywhere for my daughter and explained that I recently realized I’d given copies to her friends as birthday gifts but never gotten her one of her own! Also, I told her (and this is true) that after I read Forest of Hands and Teeth, I lent my copy to a guy at work that I liked. We are married now. She was like, WIN! So that was cool.

8. Tiffany Schmidt writes fairy tales set in crime families.

Before the panel, I hadn’t even heard of her or her books. When she explained what she writes, I was like wait, what?! How cool is that? I bought a copy of Hold Me Like a Breath which is a retelling of The Princess and the Pea in a family that deals in illegal organ transplants. I must read this!

9. Writer’s Block Technique a la Tiffany Schmidt: take a notebook with you on a run and leave it on a table or place you’ll pass. Make a loop. Write down anything you think of re: your problem. Still stuck? Make another loop.

Let me say that I will absolutely be trying this!

10. Look for common themes or structure across the big bestselling books, says Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

Twilight: forbidden love with the threat of death. Take that idea and look at Hunger Games. Pretty similar when you pare it down that far, right? Makes me want to break down other stories and think about them this way. I like how you think, Jennifer Lynn Barnes!

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