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Review: Freerunner by Kathy Cassel

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,
Freerunner by Kathy Cassel

Freerunner
Kathy Cassel
Elk Lake Publishing
Published May 16, 2020

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About Freerunner

Night is Kia’s favorite time, when she freeruns to outdistance the memories of abuse she suffered as a young child. But when former reality television star Terrence Jones arrives at their school as the new head track coach, things begin to change in unpredictable ways.

Kia tries out for the team to fit in, but just as she’s gaining a new sense of normal, her abuser steps back into her life. Not only that, but being on the track team causes even more turmoil. Why does the assistant coach, Cassandra Clark, dislike Terrence Jones so much, and even more troubling, why does Coach Clark dislike her so much?

As the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together, Kia realizes she has to choose between running from her past or saving a child from the same sort of abuse she suffered. But will she have the courage to do so?

Set against the backdrop of the sport of freerunning, Kia must decide whether she will continue running or face her past abuser in order to save another child.

My Review

I feel like this is going to be a difficult review to write– not because the book was bad, but because I am still sorting through my feelings on it.

First, what I liked: the easy friendship between Thorn and Kiana was great. I loved the way they stuck up for each other and bonded over their shared love of freerunning. I liked that the story wasn’t about them developing a romantic relationship.

The family relationships are complicated (in a good way). Kiana’s mom isn’t making good choices, but she reads as a desperate woman who’s barely keeping her head above water. That’s no excuse for the things she does, but it makes her a complex character.

As I read, I felt the sinister nature of the relationship between Kiana and her grandfather. There are no graphic descriptions of him hurting anyone, but I had no trouble believing him capable of it. And the way he flipped things around to deflect blame from himself and used charm and fake innocence to avoid judgment or consequences was super creepy. Believable and creepy.

On the other side, the story raises a couple of issues that get left unaddressed. In one scene, Kiana’s grandfather leads a little girl from the church toward his car, claiming he has permission to take her home. The children’s director tells him no one is authorized to do this without having written consent from the parent first.

Not long after that, Kiana’s coach insists on giving her a ride home from the church because it’s dark out, and he feels it’s unsafe for her to walk home.

Kiana also discovers her grandfather lurking around her school and track meets, and immediately she feels creeped out by this. In one scene, her track coach finds Kiana and Thorn freerunning in a sketchy part of town.

In both of those sets of instances, both men do very similar things. Obviously Kiana’s history with them makes a huge difference in how she feels about this, but I wished that the story drew a more clear line on what’s safe versus unsafe behavior. I felt like, though his motives seemed to be pure, Kiana’s coach should not have crossed those lines.

I think having those two characters– the coach/hero and the creepy grandfather both committing some of the same actions is what made it stand out to me.

Overall, though, I enjoyed reading a story that followed a girl interested in freerunning and track. I think fans of THE THING WITH FEATHERS by McCall Hoyle will find FREERUNNER to their liking.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Kiana’s mom is white and she believes her dad is black. Her grandfather sexually abused her when she was younger.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A couple of racial slurs and references to them.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to sexual abuse. No graphic descriptions. Reference to a couple being caught having sex (not shown).

Spiritual Content
Kiana joins a church group and learns about trusting God from her track coach.

Violent Content
Multiple references to sexual abuse (not graphically described). References to physical abuse and brief descriptions of a woman killed by her abuser. Reference to a group attacking a man in prison, leaving him in critical condition. A man kidnaps a girl. Someone dies falling from a building.

Drug Content
A woman drinks beers after work.

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

Review: Not Now, Not Ever by Lily Anderson

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

Not Now, Not Ever
Lily Anderson
St. Martin’s Press
Published on November 21, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Not Now, Not Ever
Elliot Gabaroche is very clear on what she isn’t going to do this summer.

1. She isn’t going to stay home in Sacramento, where she’d have to sit through her stepmother’s sixth community theater production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
2. She isn’t going to mock trial camp at UCLA.
3. And she certainly isn’t going to the Air Force summer program on her mother’s base in Colorado Springs. As cool as it would be to live-action-role-play Ender’s Game, Ellie’s seen three generations of her family go through USAF boot camp up close, and she knows that it’s much less Luke/Yoda/”feel the force,” and much more one hundred push-ups on three days of no sleep. And that just isn’t appealing, no matter how many Xenomorphs from Alien she’d be able to defeat afterwards.

What she is going to do is pack up her attitude, her favorite Octavia Butler novels, and her Jordans, and go to summer camp. Specifically, a cutthroat academic-decathlon-like competition for a full scholarship to Rayevich College, the only college with a Science Fiction Literature program. And she’s going to start over as Ever Lawrence, on her own terms, without the shadow of all her family’s expectations. Because why do what’s expected of you when you can fight other genius nerds to the death for a shot at the dream you’re sure your family will consider a complete waste of time?

This summer’s going to be great.

My Review
I thought the connections between Not Now, Not Ever and The Importance of Being Earnest made this a super fun, unexpected story. Elliot’s struggle to figure out what to do with her future with regard to her family’s expectations for her definitely pulled me into the story. It wasn’t the most satisfying plot element, though.

Actually, I have to say I was pretty excited when I figured out that Brandon (if you read The Only Thing Worse than Me Is You, you’ll remember this guy!) had a pretty major role in this novel. I loved finding him in Not Now, Not Ever.

Lots of the characters have secrets of their own, which had me hooked. It seemed like every time I thought I pegged what was going to happen, some new layer emerged. That made for a fun reading experience for sure.

On the whole, I think I liked these characters better than The Only Thing Worse than Me Is You but prefer that plot over Not Now, Not Ever. Not to say I didn’t enjoy both—I totally did. Anderson delivers strong dialogue and banter with some really fun geek culture in both books. Fans of Cori McCarthy’s You Were Here and Anderson’s debut novel, The Only Thing Worse than Me Is You will want to add this one to reading lists.

Recommended for Ages 14 up

Cultural Elements
Elliot is black. Her step-mom is white. She’s also from a family with very strong military traditions and feels pressured to join follow in that tradition after high school, despite her other dreams. Two of the boys in the summer program are gay and start a relationship.

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

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys and between a boy and girl. It’s implied that a boy and girl have had sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
At one point Elliot drinks alcohol with a friend.

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

 

Review: Not if I See You First by Eric Lindstrom

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

Not If I See You First
Eric Lindstrom
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Poppy

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Parker lives by a specific set of rules. She expects to be treated like everyone else. Judgment comes swiftly for anyone who takes advantage of the fact that she’s blind. One betrayal, and you’re cut from her life. Scott, the boy who was once her best friend and became her boyfriend learns this lesson the hard way.

Only now he’s back, transferred to her school, and Parker has no choice but to make the best of it. She prides herself on the ability to know the people around them, to read them even if she can’t see them. But as she grapples with unresolved feelings about Scott in the wake of her father’s death, she learns she may not see others as clearly as she thinks. In fact she may be dead wrong about the most important people in her life.

One of the random but very cool things to me about this book is that I constantly kept forgetting that the author is a man. Parker is so believably female and complex that I honestly checked several times because I thought maybe I’d misread the author’s name. (Not that I think men can’t write believable women or vice versa, but it’s always awesome when you find someone who does a spectacular job of it.)

As far as the story, I loved the unpredictable elements. I was surprised by the revelation about facts surrounding Parker’s dad’s death. I thought even the way their relationship worked seemed very real and definitely fit in with the larger story about how Parker doesn’t always peg people close to her as accurately as she would wish to believe.

I felt like there was a good balance between attention given to her blindness without the details about her daily life overtaking the story. I didn’t feel a lack of setting details despite the fact that they were not given through visual cues.

I loved the romance and the quick, witty dialogue. Great lines like that in conversation always make me want to be a better writer myself and feel a lot of admiration for the author who created them.

Other than the use of profanity (there was quite a bit), the story is pretty clean. I enjoyed reading it.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency. Also some crude language.

Sexual Content
Kissing. At one point Parker reflects on feeling starved for physical contact with people and how that makes her want to go further with a boy than she would normally feel comfortable.

Spiritual Content
Parker spends time thinking in long monologues to her dad after his death. She says she doesn’t believe he’s watching over her or seeing everything going on in her life. The conversations are her way of staying close to him.

Violence
Parker hears a scuffle when a boy tackles two other boys who have been picking on her.

Drug Content
None.

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