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A Pair of Contemporary Reviews

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I don’t usually read a ton of contemporary realistic fiction, but participating in my workplace’s Mock Printz committee makes it hard to avoid. I like that committees such as this one force me to pick up books I otherwise never would have – it makes me a more well-rounded reader and, as a result, a more well-rounded person. Both of my most recent contemporary reads have focused on grief.

optimists die first nielsenOptimists Die First by Susin Nielsen

Petula de Wilde’s baby sister died in an accident two years ago, and Petula blames herself (and feels everyone else does, too). Since then, Petula has been preoccupied with avoiding random accidents, rare diseases, and other events that can end a life early, to the point where it impacts her ability to live her life fully. She’s placed in a Youth Art Therapy (YART) class at her school with other troubled teens who are working through their own problems. While she’s initially resistant, her walls start to crumble when she befriends Jacob, a boy with a prosthetic arm who is the only survivor of a drunk driving accident.

Lest this description mislead you, this is not really a story about how a cute boy helps a girl learn to live again. Jacob has his own hangups, and Nielsen fleshes out a number of subplots involving other students in YART, Petula’s parents, and her former best friend. The result is a complex portrait of a grieving girl who grows – but is still perhaps not yet fully healed – by the end of the book. At times it has a bit of an after school special feel, and Nielsen’s writing is less sophisticated than a lot of other YA. Still, her straightforward style ably tells the story, and she’s able to mine significant humor – without mockery – from Petula’s and her classmates’ problems and their various methods of dealing with them (some quite healthy by the end). Readers will be happy to see Petula blame herself less – and live more – by the time they turn the last page.

we are okay lacourWe Are Okay by Nina LaCour

Marin fled her home in California for college in New York after an unnamed tragedy, and now that it’s the winter break, her (former?) best friend Mabel is coming for a brief visit. Marin hasn’t returned any of Mabel’s texts, and she’s chosen to stay at her dorm over the break, even though everyone else has left and the winter promises to be fierce. Over the course of the story, what exactly precipitated Marin’s departure unfolds in flashbacks.

Wow, can Nina LaCour write. It’s almost painful to read this book because Marin’s loneliness is so palpable. LaCour’s depiction of Marin is intimate and impossibly sad, showing readers a hurt, betrayed, and grief-stricken girl living in (chosen) isolation, wanting to let Mabel back in, but not knowing how. While LaCour does eventually reveal what has caused Marin’s grief, there aren’t really easy answers to how Marin can come back from it, nor why things happened the way they did in the first place. I can’t say I enjoyed reading this novel, but there’s no doubt LaCour’s mastery of her craft is on full display here. This one is for readers who love introspective YA.

On Grief and Finding Love Unexpected: The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds and The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

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Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve read two books that traversed some really similar themes and rather than review them at length in separate posts, I thought it would make more sense to review them together. Both explore grief and loss with a hopeful edge that comes from also finding a sweet, satisfying — even if not necessarily easy — romance.

These are also both titles that do one of my favorite things in realistic fiction: they showcase how you can bloom where you’re planted when the choice of where you are is outside your control.

Jason Reynolds’s sophomore novel, The Boy in the Black Suit, takes what he did great in his first book and makes it sing even louder.

After Matt’s mother dies, he finds himself looking for a job or an internship. He’s going to school part-time in order to gain work experience in those afternoons. It’s a way for him to escape his father’s own spiraling grief and challenges.

When Matt arrives at the local greasy, fast food chicken joint, he’s prepared for the work, even if it’s not something that interests him in the least — and even if it means dealing with obnoxious, rude customers, as he witnesses when he’s there filling out the application.

But when an offer to work at a local funeral home comes his way, he can’t pass it up, even if he’s hesitant to be working in a world of grief close to his own. It’s through witnessing those funerals, though, and seeing how other people process their losses, that Matt is better able to process his own.

It’s at one of the funerals, though, where Matt stumbles across Lovey. She looks familiar, and he realizes that’s because she’s the girl who he saw at the fast food joint when he went to apply who had been dealing with rowdy customers. Soon, the two of them begin talking, then spending time together, then finding themselves falling for one another.

Reynolds’s story is a quieter one, featuring the kind of character we don’t see enough of in YA: a realistic black boy who — while living in a tough part of Brooklyn and dealing with family and friends who aren’t always making smart choices — is himself intelligent, hard-working, and builds solid relationships with his friends, with his boss at work, and ultimately, Lovey. He isn’t stereotyped in any way, and he’s also not rendered as a boy who is all feelings, even though he has plenty of them. Rather, he’s fully fleshed, dynamic, and his story has a fulfilling arc. It’s hopeful, but it’s also imperfect. There’s exceptional compassion extended to Matt, and there’s exceptional compassion extended from him, too.

What stood out to me in this story was the way the relationship between Matt and Lovey grew. This is a sweet and realistic romance, one that’s tentative at times, and it’s one that’s not immediately nor easily rewarded. Since both are working through personal grief and change, it’s hard for them to be emotionally available to one another, even when they want to be that way. This is a slow-build and satisfying storyline, which begs readers to root for both characters and their successes alone and together.

The funeral home job element made this story unique, as did its gritty, urban setting. The juxtaposition is, at times, uncomfortable. But that’s purposeful, and it makes Matt’s voice and perspective shine even stronger. This is a quick read, despite being a quieter one. Hand The Boy in the Black Suit to readers looking for urban-set fiction, for those seeking a nice male-led romance or male-led story about grief and loss, or those looking for something “different” in realistic YA fiction — this isn’t the go-to pick for those who love the best-selling titles. Readers interested in an intergenerational relationship will appreciate Matt and his boss’s connections, and those looking for a good male friendship story will appreciate Matt and Chris’s relationship, too.

Jessie Ann Foley’s The Carnival at Bray had the set up of everything I dislike: a 90s setting that served the purpose of being so for the grunge music and to avoid the social media/mobile phone reality of today. 

But I loved it. 
When Maggie’s mother remarried Colm, they — along with her younger sister Ronnie — move to Bray, a small area on the Eastern shore or Ireland. It’s a lonely time in a new place for Maggie, but she’s buoyed by her uncle Kevin’s letters and packages, as well as by the boy she’s run into who she can’t keep her eyes off of, even if she has no idea who he is or what he’s about. For a short time, Maggie keeps herself occupied with her new friend Aine, but it’s not a great friendship. Aine has little interest in Maggie as a person, but in Maggie as a way to spend time with her boyfriend Paddy. 

But when Kevin dies unexpectedly, Maggie has to reassess her life as it is and figure out how to make a life in the place she’s been planted best she can. There is an adventure to be had, though, when Maggie discovers a letter her mom has hidden from her, where her uncle Kevin has left her a pair of tickets to see Nirvana in Italy, telling her to take the boy with her. Maggie hems and haws about it, being a good girl like she is, but then she and Eoin take the adventure. It costs them both deeply. 

What was great: this wasn’t about the music as portrayed in the book. It was about the power of music, period. It was about fulfilling that dream of seeing a band you love and being part of a crowd of other people who are sharing an experience with you, but not necessarily sharing the exact same experience you are. It’s about friendship and about the challenges of meeting new people and learning to trust their intentions. It’s about romance and finding someone who gets you, through thick and thin. It’s, even more, about family. The relationship between Maggie and her mother is rendered so well and so painfully, and the relationship between Maggie and her sister Ronnie is so a relationship between a 16-year-old girl and her 11-year-old sister. But more, it was the Kevin-Maggie relationship I loved most. 

Foley’s use of setting is really great, and the use of third person was surprising and perfect for this story. The writing itself was smooth, and in the first sex scene of the book — not one between Maggie and Eoin, but Maggie and another boy — it was awkward and written in an honest manner that handled it better than many first-person narratives do. But this isn’t a book where sex matters much. Rather, what makes it good is the longing we get from Maggie and how much she yearns and craves something physical from Eoin, and he doesn’t press her for it. Instead, we see intimacy — they shared a bed, fully clothed, and it’s that which Maggie lets linger and sustain her through the separation they have.

This isn’t a big story — Kevin’s death and subsequent understanding of why and how he died isn’t a huge part of the book — and it reads quickly, but there’s a lot of story packed in here. This is a story about love and loss, about learning how to make a life and a living when everything that had been a part of your life is torn away, by forces you can never understand. It’s about choices other people make and how deeply they impact you personally. 

I’d avoided picking this one up because of the time period setting, even after it was named a Morris finalist. The 90s setting is a convenience in the story; there’s no way that Maggie would have gotten away with a cross-continental trip in the same way with modern technology, and there’s no way the final moments of the story, which happen at a concert after Kurt Cobain’s death was announced, would have happened, either. Fortunately, these conveniences for the purpose of plot weren’t distracting and didn’t overshadow the strengths of the story or of the voice. I suspect most readers won’t be paying attention to those workarounds. 
Hand The Carnival at Bray to readers who love foreign settings, as well as those who like a story set in another era. This is the kind of book that fans of Melina Marchetta will dig, especially for how it portrays the complexities of family relationships. There’s an excellent intergenerational relationship between Maggie and an older man in Bray, and there’s an interesting — and surprisingly refreshing — religious school that plays a notable part in the story. 

Adrenaline-fueled, Male-Centered Contemporary YA Fiction

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With Eric Devine’s post on male violence and aggression, I could think of no better sort of list to write than one featuring contemporary realistic YA books that are male-centered and feature high adrenaline and, in most cases, violence of some kind. These books are gritty and intense. 

All descriptions come from WorldCat, and most of these titles were published in the last 5-7 years. I’d love to have more titles to add to this list, so if you can think of any, feel free to offer them in the comments. 

Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan: Steven “Crash” Crashinsky relates his sordid ten-year relationship with David “Burn” Burnett, the boy he stopped from taking their high school hostage at gunpoint.

Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen: High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.

Press Play by Eric Devine: While making a documentary to get himself into film school, Greg accidentally captures footage of brutal and bloody hazing by the lacrosse team, and he must decide whether to release the film or keep the secret.

Blade: Playing Dead by Tim Bowler: A fourteen-year-old British street person with extraordinary powers of observation and self-control must face murderous thugs connected with a past he has tried to forget, when his skills with a knife earned him the nickname, Blade.

Violence 101 by Denis Wright: In a New Zealand reformatory, Hamish Graham, an extremely intelligent fourteen-year-old who believes in the compulsory study of violence, learns that it is not always the answer.

Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe: Fifteen-year-old Kyle believes he does not deserve to live after accidentally shooting and killing his best friend.

Dirt Road Home by Watt Key: At Hellenweiler, a reformatory for second-offenders, fourteen-year-old Hal Mitchell will soon be free if he can avoid the gang violence of his fellow inmates, but the real enemy may lie elsewhere.

Efrain’s Secret by Sofia Quintero: Ambitious high school senior and honor student Efrain Rodriguez makes some questionable choices in pursuit of his dream to escape the South Bronx and attend an Ivy League college.

If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser: Growing up in the inner-city projects, DeShawn is reluctantly forced into the gang world by circumstances beyond his control.

Dirt Bikes, Drones, and Other Ways to Fly by Conrad Wesselhoeft: Seventeen year-old dirt-bike-riding daredevil Arlo Santiago catches the eye of the U.S. military with his first-place ranking on a video game featuring drone warfare, and must reconcile the work they want him to do with the emotional scars he has suffered following a violent death in his family.

Unlocked by Ryan G. Van Cleave: While trying to impress a beautiful, unattainable classmate, fourteen-year-old Andy discovers that a fellow social outcast may be planning an act of school violence.

When I Was The Greatest by Jason Reynolds: Ali lives in Bed-Stuy, a Brooklyn neighborhood known for guns and drugs, but he and his sister, Jazz, and their neighbors, Needles and Noodles, stay out of trouble until they go to the wrong party, where one gets badly hurt and another leaves with a target on his back.



Blank Confession by Pete Hautman: A new and enigmatic student named Shayne appears at high school one day, befriends the smallest boy in the school, and takes on a notorious drug dealer before turning himself in to the police for killing someone.

Bystander by James Preller: Thirteen-year-old Eric discovers there are consequences to not standing by and watching as the bully at his new school hurts people, but although school officials are aware of the problem, Eric may be the one with a solution.

Run The Game by Jason Myers: A cocaine-addicted teenaged guitarist in a rock band falls dangerously in love with a fourteen-year-old prostitute.

Dear Life, You Suck by Scott Blagden: Irreverent, foul-mouthed, seventeen-year-old Cricket Cherpin, living under the watchful eye of Mother Mary at a Catholic boys’ home in Maine, has such bleak prospects he is considering suicide when Wynona Bidaban steps into his world.

Diary of a Witness by Catherine Ryan Hyde: Ernie, an overweight high school student and long-time target of bullies, relies on his best friend Will to watch his back until Will, overwhelmed by problems at home and guilt over his brother’s death, seeks a final solution.

Period 8 by Chris Crutcher:  Paul “the Bomb” Baum tells the truth. No matter what. It was something he learned at Sunday School. But telling the truth can cause problems, and not minor ones. And as Paulie discovers, finding the truth can be even more problematic. Period 8 is supposed to be that one period in high school where the truth can shine, a safe haven. Only what Paulie and Hannah (his ex-girlfriend, unfortunately) and his otherclassmates don’t know is that the ultimate bully, the ultimate liar, is in their midst. Just about everyone else who stops by the safe haven of the P-8 room daily are deceived. And when a classmate goes missing, all hell breaks loose. 

Break by Hannah Moskowitz: To relieve the pressures of caring for a brother with life-threatening food allergies, another who is a fussy baby, and parents who are at odds with one other, seventeen-year-old Jonah sets out to break every bone in his body in hopes of becoming stronger.

Cracked by K. M. Walton: When Bull Mastrick and Victor Konig wind up in the same psychiatric ward at age sixteen, each recalls and relates in group therapy the bullying relationship they have had since kindergarten, but also facts about themselves and their families that reveal they have much in common.