STACKED

books

Lexapros and Cons by Aaron Karo

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Chuck Taylor (yes, the same name as those iconic Converse shoes) has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. And not just the way people joke about, when they’re a bit obsessed with cleanliness. He has “count how many times he masturbates, obsessively check the stove burners lest his house burn down overnight, make sure he doesn’t get any dirt or grime anywhere on him, pee a bazillion times before bed” OCD, the kind his parents are now trying to make him see a therapist for. But even though Chuck understands why he should get better, the promise of a life without OCD is not enough to overcome the anxiety he would feel without it. That is, until a fight with his neglected best friend Steve and an intense crush on Amy, a new girl in school, propels him forward to try to change his life.

Lexapros and Cons is the debut YA novel from comedian Aaron Karo, and it is truly a hilarious read, despite its serious subject of mental illness. Chuck is a realistic character, whose life and anxieties will ring true to many readers: he’s not the most popular kid in school and has always felt left out (although he’s not quite as bad off as Steve, who is the target of intense bullying). His younger sister Beth is already much more popular than he’ll ever be. And he’s never had a girlfriend–not even a kiss, even though he’s a senior–and this new crush is completely freaking him out. But it’s Chuck’s not-so-normal anxieties that truly make him shine as a character, along with the way he finally chooses to confront them. While these OCD actions of Chuck may seem odd on the surface, Aaron Karo handles them in such a sensitive, knowing way that Chuck’s fears make perfect sense. He makes the obstacles that Chuck overcomes seem so realistic and insurmountable that we are that much more impressed with Chuck’s strength as he moves forward in life.

The supporting characters shine, too, especially Amy, who is at first clueless about Chuck’s disorder and then comes in and out of his life in a circuitous route. It’s always refreshing to see girls fall for the “nerdy guy” in books, as this DOES actually happen in real life. Not every teen develops a crush on the star quarterback or the hottest guy in school.

While Lexapros and Cons may benefit from some judicious readers’ advisory (the masturbation references and slight profanity may make it better suited for the slightly older YA crowd), this is a great book for your reluctant readers. The short chapters and easy tone draw the reader in immediately. I’d pair it with Jesse Andrews’ Me and Earl and the Dying Girl for a one-two boy-friendly punch.

Aaron Karo will be stopping by Stacked tomorrow as part of his blog tour, as well. Come back and check it out!

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

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It’s been a long time since the last mission to the moon, and the big guys at NASA are eager to try their hands again. They see a real opportunity to gain funding again by proving these missions are worthwhile. Given the strange things that happened last time — the things that brought the NASA program to a halt decades ago — the executives realize they need to approach the public with their plans in a different way.

They’re going to send teenagers to the moon. Not only will teenagers not remember what happened before, but the excitement of selecting these teens through a worldwide competition will cause the general public to forget the mistakes of the past. It seems like a win for everyone, as both the public and NASA officials benefit from the arrangement. While they’re on the moon, the teens and small crew will reside in DARLAH 2, the structure from prior missions. It should be in the same working order it was years ago, of course (by now you’re likely asking what happened to the original DARLAH but that is the fun of this, if you think of fun in the same sense I do).

Mia, from Norway, is the member of a band and she has no interest in this contest at all. But when her parents enter her for the chance to go to the moon, she’s persuaded by her band mates this could be a perfect opportunity to give them exposure on a worldwide stage. Midori, from Japan, hates her life at home, despite feeling like she’s finally fitting in with the Harajuku girls in Tokyo (fitting in is a loose description — more like, she admires the culture and so wishes to fit in). She’s eager to turn 18 and move away from Japan and onto bigger and better things in New York City. A trip to the moon to her sounds beyond perfect. The third teenager selected for the trip is Antoine, from France. He’s in it as a way to get back at the girlfriend he lost to another boy. Going to the moon feels like real revenge.

There’s a fourth character who doesn’t last very long in the story, and that’s Himmelfarb. He’s close to death, but he’s getting the news of the moon project in his nursing facility and he is not happy about it. He may or may not know how dangerous this mission is because he may or may not have been on the last dangerous mission. The one which resulted in the DARLAH 2. This is all you need to know about Himmelfarb: on page 26, his story reads “He screamed. And his scream could be heard all the way out on the street. It was the scream of a person who’d just realized all hope was lost.” When your character knows all hope is lost that soon in the story, you know things are not going anywhere good!

After the training to prepare these teens for space, they’re sent up with a few crew members, and it takes virtually no time before things get very, very bad. Just minutes following their initial exploration of the DARLAH 2, power to the facility is gone. Then their oxygen levels are decreasing. Oh, and surprise! No one can fix the facility because (silly NASA officials), the fact the place has sat empty on the moon for decades has made it impossible to open the wiring cages they need to open. Things are bleak.

Then they discover they are not alone on the moon. Something else is out there, too. Something — or someone — doesn’t want their demise to be any easier than necessary.

172 Hours on the Moon is a plot-driven, sci-fi thriller that I loved every second of. This book reads like a cross between a Scandanavian thriller film and straight up J-horror.  Harstad successfully builds the tension in this story by not wasting a whole lot of time letting us get to know the characters, and while it means we’re left with really thin characters, it means that we’re also wholly absorbed in the strange events surrounding this trip. As readers, we’re putting ourselves in the situation, since it’s one we’ve probably all thought a little bit about — wouldn’t it be cool to go to the moon and check it out? What if there is life on another planet? But Harstad then tosses in the little problems of not having a safe place to live, not having oxygen to breathe, and having another being chasing us down (and really what can we do when that happens because we don’t have anywhere to hide and we don’t have a way to keep our bodies functioning). Pacing is spot-on, and action propels the story forward.

Furthering the tension is the careful weaving of fear throughout the story in a way that doesn’t necessarily make this a scary book but more of a chilling book. When all three of the teens are preparing for the mission and spending a lot of time together, they’re swapping stories about their lives back home. So while they’re not entirely developed individuals, readers are given hints into their psyche. Midori dazzles Mia and Antoine with Japanese urban legends, in particular the one about the Kuchisake-onna. While they sort of write it off, this is an image that will not go away easily. Mia shares her love of music — in particular 80s jams — and there’s a particular scene in the novel where she remembers this song. For me, these two things set the path of where the story was heading, and I was not once disappointed in the pay off in the end.

Characters are not going to make it out alive in 172 Hours on the Moon, and the way Harstad develops his characters will give readers an indication of who plays an important part in the story and who is simply along for the ride. It’s when things begin getting very desperate — when members of the moon mission team are splitting up in hopes of finding a way back to Earth — that the other being emerges. Mia, who is hard-headed and stubborn, is determined to get off the moon and get back to Earth, even if it means going it alone. She’s not going to wait for adults to take care of her. She’s also not going to back down when she comes face to face with the being who calls moon home. Because explaining what may be lurking on the moon would spoil the entire story, I’ll say this much: Kuchisake-onna will show up again. Anyone familiar with J-Horror will no doubt see the end of this one from miles away, but I loved it anyway. It felt entirely fresh in the young adult world.

Maybe the strongest element of this novel, though, was that it was written in third-person. In theory, we get a sense of all the characters from an objective narrator, who is able to lead us from the moment NASA officials decide to make this trip through to the end of the characters’ journeys. Except, never once did I believe this narrator was objective. S/he leads us through the story, baiting us with how we should feel, which only furthers the suspense and the tension. Do we want to believe the narrator or do we want to form our own beliefs about the situation and the character motivations? How can we?

Because I am familiar with this sort of story from watching a lot of movies in this vain, I found the book to be a lot of fun and, at times, really funny. There were many times I laughed out loud, including during a particularly amusing moment when readers are let in on the fact of why NASA officials chose to leave Buzz Aldrin’s footprint and boot on the moon; that item becomes something the teens want to steal and bring back home as a relic of their trip (I just cracked myself up again thinking about how symbolic this sentence is in and of itself). That said, 172 Hours on the Moon is a classic thriller, in that it delivers moments of terror and chills without necessarily becoming gory. It will scare people who are sensitive to scary films — I’d rank it somewhere between “The Others,” “The Ring,” and “The Changeling” in terms of haunts.

Readers who are demanding will probably be disappointed in a lack of character development and a lot of suspension of belief, which starts from the beginning with the premise that three teens from three vastly different countries had no problem talking with one another in the same language. Even though I consider myself demanding, I let this go right away because there is so much more going on worth worrying about instead. Those who love science fiction and thrillers, though, will eat this up. It’s worth noting that even though this is a translated novel, it does not falter under awkward phrasings or jumps in pacing due to translation issues.

One additional neat element to the book is the use of photographs throughout the story. They’re woven into the text in a way that makes this an even more visual read, maybe even making it a little more eerie.

Review copy received from the publisher. 172 Hours on the Moon will be available April 17.

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

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I loved Grave Mercy so much that the two books I read immediately afterward – books I had been looking forward to reading for several months – seemed like shoddy imitations of books in comparison. I loved it for so many reasons: how big the story is, how fresh its ideas are, how well it’s written. It’s over 500 pages of story, and not once does it drag.
Ismae is a handmaiden of death. She was rescued from a terrible marriage at 14 and sent to a convent, where the nuns trained her to serve Mortain, the saint/god of death. What this means is that by age 17, Ismae is a well-trained assassin, and she’s sent out on jobs to dispatch people that Mortain has marked with his inky black stain that only his handmaidens can see.
Ismae’s latest assignment is at the court of Brittany, an independent province that is now a part of France. Grave Mercy takes place in the late 15th century, during a time when Brittany was struggling mightily to keep itself from being absorbed by France. (The existence of the present-day borders of France is a spoiler, but the book is suspenseful regardless.) Anne, the very young duchess of Brittany, is being torn in many directions. She’s unmarried, and she’s been promised in marriage to half a dozen – or more – people. Choosing one man over another, or not choosing anyone at all, will have dire consequences for Brittany.
Ismae’s job is first and foremost to protect her duchess, and she is instructed to do so by determining who at court is betraying Anne – because all signs point to a traitor in Anne’s midst. When she unveils the traitor, the convent will send her orders to kill him (or her). Ismae’s cover is as a “cousin” (read: mistress) to Gavriel Duval, Anne’s bastard half-brother and her closest adviser. Ismae has been told that it is likely he is the spy, so she is to work with him to keep Anne safe while also spying on him to determine if he is the traitor. I knew the romance was coming, but it was so good – swoony in the right parts, some nice repartee, and its development was timed well. When they finally do fall in love, it makes sense and is completely believable.
There’s a lot of political intrigue that pulls in real historical events, which I enjoyed researching while I read the book. It’s fairly complex, but it’s not so complex that it’s impossible to follow. I loved how big the story was, and I don’t mean length-wise. So many things are going on, and they have huge ramifications for many, many people. It reminds me a lot of why I loved fantasy and historical fiction to begin with: huge stories with multiple intricate plotlines and profound consequences for entire countries or even entire worlds.
One of the things I appreciated most about Grave Mercy is that Ismae does kill. And she doesn’t do it only in self-defense or after deep consideration of the target’s crimes. She does it on order, without much regret or much thought as to whether the person deserves to die (at first, at least). I mention this because in a lot of fantasy or historical fiction novels, the authors find a way for their protagonists to not have to do the Bad or Unpleasant Thing that the plot indicates they really should have to do. (Prime example: In Wither, Rhine never consummates her marriage with Linden. Completely unbelievable, but not surprising.) This choice alone proves that LaFevers knows the world she has created and is unwilling to write herself loopholes to save the reader from some unpleasantness. I have a lot of respect for YA authors who do this. It’s much too rare.
Hype isn’t always a good indicator of a novel’s worth, but in this case, it’s well-deserved. If you’re a fan of complex, involving stories that take the time to develop complicated characters and important details, this book is for you. Anyone who likes historical fiction will eat it up, as will fantasy fans and romance fans. There’s a sequel in the works that focuses on Sybella, one of Ismae’s fellow trainees at the convent, and I can hardly wait for it.

Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

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Seventeen-year-old Mia Price is addicted. But not to alcohol, drugs, or any of the other usual suspects. Mia is addicted to lightning strikes. She’s been struck numerous times throughout her life, can feel storms coming on, and craves the rush of being struck. She even has the scars all over her body to prove it, ones she covers up with full body clothing and gloves. But the one storm Mia didn’t sense coming wasn’t related to lightning at all. It was an earthquake, the earthquake that destroyed Los Angeles, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Downtown L.A. was reduced to an area called the Waste, with collapsed skyscrapers and debris. And the beaches of Venice and Santa Monica were converted into Tentville, where the poor and homeless set up temporary living quarters and a man called Prophet established his home base. Prophet, who claims to have predicted the quake, has drawn many under his spell with his charismatic presence and vehement preaching about the end of days, repentence, and sin.

In the aftermath of the quake, Mia and her brother Parker are responsible for taking care of their mother, who is suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder, and who is gradually falling deeper under Prophet’s spell. Mia trades for anti-anxiety meds on the black market, venturing into the slums and risking her life, and the siblings go back to school to obtain the rare food rations that they will receive there. It is on this first day of school that Mia’s life changes even more. She is soon caught between a group called the Seekers, who believe that Mia’s lightning scars signify something special, called the “Spark,” Jeremy, a strange boy who once tried to kill her but now claims to be saving her life, and Prophet’s followers. But when Mia discovers that Prophet’s message of the end of days, and another final storm, may just become reality, and that she is crucial to this vision, she has decide who to align herself with.
While I’m a bit burnt out on post-apocalyptic fiction, Struck was a compelling read that dealt with a unique concept –the end of days as brought upon by weather phenomenon, rather than corrupt ruling authorities. The idea of a girl being tied up with this extreme weather was an interesting addition, although I wish that Bosworth would have fleshed out Mia’s connection with lightning more. We learn about her backstory a bit, about how lightning affects her and the effects her ‘condition’ has had on other people in her life. Yet we never find out exactly why Mia is a human lightning rod. Is it something she was born with or something that affected her suddenly? And if it did only occur when she was first struck by lightning, why? A little clarification would have made her journey a bit more clear for me.
Another unique topic that this book tackles is that of extreme religion and the dangers of blindly following a religious leader. I rarely see books dealing with religion in YA lit, and Struck deals with the extreme limits of this subject matter, painting religion, and blind adherence to faith, as dangerous. This can be a risky move, as many readers may be religious and take Bosworth’s characters as a condemnation of their own beliefs. However, Prophet is sufficiently evil, and his actions so extreme, that Bosworth manages to condemn religious extremism rather than religion.
One personal quibble of mine is the Jeremy character. I am not a fan of the “protagonist being unexplainably attracted to the compelling boy” cliche, which I see used over and over in paranormal fiction. This instant attraction just seems like an easy out to me, a way for an author to establish a relationship without dealing with the experiences that actually establish a relationship in real-life. Relationship and character development took a back seat to world building in Struck.
However, despite these complaints, I still enjoyed Struck, and raced through it quite quickly. I always respect originality and taking chances in my books.
Disclosure: Review copy received from publisher.
Struck will be published on May 8, 2012.

Thou Shalt Not Road Trip by Antony John

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Imagine being 16 and writing a best-selling novel and having your publishing house send you on a cross-country tour to promote the book. Sounds a little bit like a dream, but that’s what happens to Luke in Antony John’s Thou Shalt Not Road Trip.

Luke’s penned an inspirational novel about faith titled Hallelujah, and his tour kicks off in California, half a country away from his home town of St Louis, Missouri. Fortunately, he’s not going on tour alone — his older brother Matt is acting as his chauffeur. At his first tour stop, Luke is overwhelmed by the reception he and his book have received from so many people — what he thought of as simply a book about his journey toward understanding faith and coming to terms with his spirituality as a 16-year-old has touched the lives of many people, and they want him to know.

Oh, and then there’s Fran. Fran is Luke’s former best friend/crush/maybe former girlfriend. They haven’t talked in a long time. Things between them haven’t been peachy for a while. But surprise — she shows up to see him on tour and he finds out that she’ll be joining them on the tour, what looked like a fun experience has turned into a bit of a nightmare for Luke.

Maybe it’s unfair of me, but I was worried about reading this book. It tackles a topic I don’t care to read a whole lot about, which is spirituality and belief. That’s not to say it’s not an important topic, but it’s one I prefer not to spend a lot of time with. However, I was so wrong. What John did in this novel is far better than offer up a story about an enlightened teenager spreading his word about belief and faith. He’s written a novel about a teen boy who thinks he knows the meaning of faith and conviction, when in fact, he hasn’t the slightest clue. Not only that, but this book does a great job of balancing the serious issues with a lot of humor.

Luke’s a believable 16-year-old boy, aside from the mega book deal — but that’s where the humor is. The situation is outlandishly funny, as Luke’s sent on this publicity tour without as much as a publicist or a parent; instead, his college-age brother will be helping him along the way. Sure he can call his publicist, but he nor the publicist seem particularly interested in keeping in contact through a lot of the story. His spiritual memoir’s in its 5th printing, and he’s getting prominent display space in New York City book stores as further promotion. Although we know what his book is about, as readers, we’re on the outside of understanding who Luke is and where his beliefs really lie. That is, we know a lot about what makes him well-liked and respected, but we don’t get to experience it first-hand. This technique works quite well initially, as it allows us to discover that Luke’s not as put together as he seems. He’s imperfect.

When Fran enters the story, we learn from Luke that she’s a different person than she was the year before. Back then, she was on the straight and narrow, and she was the kind of girl who blended in at school. That’s what made Luke like her so much — she didn’t try to stand out or try to be anyone she wasn’t. But this last year, she’s dyed her hair a funky color and she’s become much different than she was before. It makes him uncomfortable, and his prejudice against her appearance causes him to drop Fran as a friend, leaving her without the sort of support system she needed. The sort of support that would have helped her feel good about herself when she needed it. And it’s in this break time that Luke pens his book and earns his acclaim.

Except Fran knows he’s a phony.

That’s the precise reason she’s decided to seek him out on his tour. Fran wants to confront him about what he did to her, how he abandoned her, and how it makes her feel. As much as this is a story about Fran seeking solace in what happened to them, it’s also a story about Luke’s continued feelings for her. As much as he dropped her, part of the reason he did it was because he was afraid to like someone so different from himself. Someone who wasn’t as spiritually enlightened as he believed himself to be. During the course of their cross-country trip, Luke learns there’s something much darker about Fran, too: she’s got a drinking problem. At this point, it’s clear how different their paths are and how far apart they’ve grown. But this trip? It’s much more than Luke’s publicity tour. It’s a chance for them to patch things up.

Dialog rings true to character and age in the book, though I had a bit of a hangup with back story. While we get the opportunity to know Luke and Fran in the current day, I didn’t feel like I got a good grasp on what caused the rift in their relationship earlier. There is a lot of unpacking baggage and coming to terms with the notions of faith and conviction, but because it’s set against what their relationship once was, I hoped to get a stronger sense of how the relationship once was. It’s there, but had it been sussed out a bit more, the payoff at the end of the story (as well as the moments of watching Fran break down) would have been more powerful.

Thou Shalt Not Road Trip will appeal to a lot of readers — the road trip aspect will work for readers who love those stories, but readers who like a good male lead character will find Luke authentic and easy to relate to, even with the mega best seller thrown in. This one will work really well for readers who do like stories about faith and spiritual belief, as it’s both about testing those convictions and coming to understand the implications and meanings behind them. Readers who have hit every book in Christian fiction or who want a story that traverses some of those themes without being a certain type of Christian story will find there is much to be enjoyed here. I hesitated in writing a recommendation like that because John skillfully writes a story that will work for those who have absolutely no interest in that kind of story, too — there’s a lot to be enjoyed in the relationship between two brothers in the book, as well, and I don’t think there are a whole lot of strong brother stories out there. It’s a book that’s easy to hand to a wide array of readers.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Thou Shalt Not Road Trip will be available April 12.