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A Pair of Debut Reviews: Zoe Letting Go by Nora Price and Survive by Alex Morel

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I’ve got a pair of reviews of books by debut authors, and I enjoyed both of them for different reasons. I wouldn’t say they’re perfect — they’re not — but they’re going to have pretty high appeal to teen readers.

Nora Price’s Zoe Letting Go follows Zoe as she’s admitted to Twin Birch. This isn’t an ordinary hospital — it’s really a mansion and the girls who are here are so strange and foreign to Zoe. They’re the kinds of girls who like to harm themselves. The kinds of girls who are so weak that after meal time, they have to sit by the fireplace, cover themselves in blankets, and hope they don’t pass out completely. This small facility only allows a limited number of girls into each session, and the girls arrive on staggering dates. By the time Zoe arrives, she’s the last one of this batch, meaning she’s also the last one to leave.

All of the activities at Twin Birch are closely monitored and their treatments are regimented. Except, Zoe doesn’t belong here. She knows she doesn’t. And that’s why she’s been writing letters home to her best friend Elise. She thinks there’s been a huge mistake. But through these letters, readers figure out why Zoe is at Twin Birch and why she really needs the help she’s receiving.

Zoe Letting Go is a dark book about eating disorders, friendship, and recovery. As readers, we’re right in Zoe’s mind as she’s writing letters — ones from which she never hears a single response. It’s odd her best friend wouldn’t try to help her. It’s odder that she is at this place. What Price does successfully in executing her story this way is that readers pick up on Zoe’s problem well before she does, but it doesn’t make the end any less satisfying. Because as much as we “know” what’s going on, Zoe is a complex, layered character who has more than one reason she’s being helped. There’s a definite reason she’s among the elite few getting treated at Twin Birch and not any ordinary facility.

Price’s debut novel is a perfect blend of the elements of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls with Erin Saldin’s The Girls of No Return. It will have appeal to fans of both those books, as well as those who like stories about eating disorders, mental illness, and the process of therapy/recovery. Zoe Letting Go is available now.

Continuing with the theme of mental health/illness is Alex Morel’s Survive. Jane’s also living in a treatment facility but her issue is that she’s attempted suicide numerous times. This is a problem that runs in her family — she’s not the only one who has tried to end it all (though those before her have been more successful).

When Christmas break rolls around, Jane thinks she has cooked up the perfect escape plan: she’s going to kill herself on her plane trip home. She’ll slip into the bathroom with a bottle of pills. No one else will be hurt in the process. But just as she locks herself in the stall and starts taking her first round of pills, the plane hits turbulence. It’s not any kind of turbulence that stops though. This plane’s going down.

Isn’t it terrible then when Jane finds herself alive in the wreckage? She’s not only failed at her suicide attempt, but now she’s a crash survivor. Except, she’s not alone. Paul, her seatmate, is also alive, and he has convinced her that survival is what she must fight for because it’s the right thing. She and he have been given an opportunity that so many others have not. They must make the best of it.

The back blurb of this book calls it Hatchet for a new generation, and I can see that. It’s an adventure story through and through. This is a story about a girl who doesn’t want to live learning why living is important. It’s obvious there’s going to be a romance here between Jane and Paul, and while I didn’t buy it for a second, the relationship they develop of co-dependence, of working together toward a common goal, of surviving against the odds, is well done. Paul does a great job of teaching Jane the things the treatment facility failed to instill in her, and I think that’s where the real story is in this. Survive is about the importance of developing relationships (romantic or not), as well as learning to make your life work for you because those are the only two things that you can do for yourself. This is a fast-paced book and has definite appeal to reluctant readers. I won’t ruin the plot, but I’ll say this much: it might not be the happy end you expect. I saw it coming from a mile away, but it didn’t ruin the story for me. Survive published this week from Razorbill. 

Review copies received from the publisher.

The Raft by S. A. Bodeen

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When teenager Robie needs to get a quick flight from Honolulu to her home island of Midway, she jumps aboard the next cargo plane. She’s done it many times before, and it’s not unusual for her to be the only passenger. This time, she’s on the plane with the pilot, whom she knows, and the co-pilot, a young man named Max whom she’s never met. 
Unfortunately, things go wrong and the plan crashes in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Robie and Max survive, but they’re cast adrift at sea on a raft with very few tools and no real way of contacting anyone for help. They have to deal with food and water shortages, sharks, the sun, and each other. It’s a fast-paced story that throws a new obstacle at Robie and Max every few pages.
Partway through the book, Bodeen throws us for a pretty major loop. It’s not totally unexpected, but it does make the book stand out from the usual survival fare. She uses this twist to try and add a bit more character depth, but the results aren’t totally successful. It seemed more like a cheat than an organic part of the story. Since I want to avoid spoilers, I can’t really explain this any more clearly. Suffice to say that if you read the book, you’ll know what I mean.It certainly adds interest and prevents the story from descending into boring stretches of Robie just sitting on the raft twiddling her thumbs.
That said, I thought the book was a good one, on the whole. Fans of survival stories will really dig it. I personally loved reading about the details that made Robie’s survival possible: how to get drinkable water, how to stretch your Skittles for maximum sustenance, how to catch a fish when you don’t have any traditional fishing equipment, and so on. I also found this to be a very suspenseful read. I was pretty sure I knew whether or not Robie would survive from page one, but Bodeen still managed to keep the tension high.
I’ve read several reviews that called The Raft boring and slow. I’m a little surprised by that, since I didn’t find it slow at all. On the contrary, I read it in a single sitting and it seemed very action-oriented to me. But I’m also a person who used to loathe survival stories as a kid, so clearly this is just a matter of taste.
Review copy received from the publisher. The Raft will be published August 21.

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

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Jasper “Jazz” Dent is the son of the world’s most famous serial killer, Billy Dent. Since Jazz was a little boy, Billy had been training Jazz in the family business. Billy himself is a true sociopath, and he killed far and wide in gruesome ways. He killed well over 100 people before he made a mistake and was eventually caught and given a life sentence.
Jazz was sent to live with his grandmother, Billy’s mother, who is senile, which means he pretty much takes care of himself. Despite being Billy’s son, Jazz himself had not yet committed murder and can pass himself off as a “normal” teen boy. He’s got a best friend and a girlfriend and is in the school play. But being the son of Billy Dent did a number on him, and he knows how to manipulate people, how to hurt them and get away with it, and he’s haunted by the voice of his Dear Old Dad that seems to always be telling him that other people don’t matter, that they exist only for his enjoyment.
When a young woman turns up dead in Jazz’s town, he’s convinced it’s another serial killer. The sheriff isn’t so sure, so Jazz sets out to prove it to him. As it becomes increasingly clear that this new killer has connections to Billy Dent, Jazz is even more determined to hunt him down and prove that he himself will not turn out like his father.
Let’s get the inevitable comparison out of the way: Yes, this is a lot like Dexter for teens. It’s not just a marketing phrase. I haven’t read any of Jeff Lindsay’s books, but I have watched a bit of the television show, and there are certainly a lot of similarities.
That said, what made I Hunt Killers an enjoyable read for me is how it diverges from Dexter. Jazz was raised to be a killer by his father and it’s a constant struggle for him to not act on impulses that have been hammered into him for years. He feels guilt over his actions (particularly when he manipulates people to get what he wants), and he’s horrified by his more violent thoughts. He doesn’t want to be a sociopath with no regard for others’ feelings or right to life. And this is the marked difference between the two characters: Dexter knows he is this way; Jazz fears he is this way. While Dexter as a character was engaging in a creepy way, Jazz as a character is engaging in a human way.
He’s also a character with a great voice. This story doesn’t sound like it was narrated by just anyone, and I thought Jazz came across as very authentically teen boy.
So, I like the way Lyga wrote his protagonist, but I also like the way Lyga writes, period. He’s clearly a pro. There are no awkward sentences, no stumbles, no rookie mistakes. I
don’t dislike debut novels, but sometimes it’s nice to read a book by
someone who’s done this before. It really shows here.
The mystery itself is enjoyable, if a bit predictable. Lyga doesn’t present the reader with a huge host of suspects, so it’s not hard to figure out the culprit. But the journey there is a thrill ride, and Lyga includes enough subplots to keep even the most perceptive reader’s interest.
Mysteries can run the gamut from pretty tame to pretty explicit, even when the subject is murder. I Hunt Killers is, probably unsurprisingly, on the more explicit end. The acts of violence are described in detail, and they are pretty twisted (the word “flayed” is used more than once). There’s also a fair amount of description of sexual assault. Dear Old Dad did pretty much anything you could think of to his victims, who were almost exclusively female. It’s certainly appropriate for a teen audience, but it won’t be for every teen. 
I Hunt Killers does what mysteries do best at the end: wrap up the current mystery and present us with other character-centric mysteries to solve in forthcoming novels. There’s closure AND there’s the desire to read more. I look forward to potential sequels, but I’ll have to space them out with some less brutal reads.
Review copy received from the publisher. I Hunt Killers is available now.

For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

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Elliot North is a Luddite, a member of the land-owning aristocratic class that has sat at society’s peak since the Reduction crippled humanity. Thought to be the result of over-reliance on technology and scientific experimentation, the Reduction caused a large portion of the population to give birth to mentally deficient babies, a condition that persisted for generations.
The Luddites outlawed technology and have since then ruled over the “Reduced” (those with reduced mental capabilities) and the “Posts” (children of the Reduced born without mental deficiencies) who live on Luddite land and serve them in much the same way indentured laborers or slaves did in the American South. Posts are actually fairly new – for many generations, children of Reduced people were Reduced themselves. 
Kai is a Post. He grew up on Elliot’s father’s land, and the two became friends as children, despite the huge social gulf between them. And they eventually fell in love. When Kai decided to make a better life for himself, far away from a place that kept him a prisoner, he asked Elliot to come with him. 
She said no, choosing loyalty to her family over Kai. Now it’s four years later, and Kai has returned with a new name, a new job, and a secret. He and his group of explorer Posts have rented land from Elliot’s family in order to build a ship, which brings Kai into almost daily contact with Elliot. There’s tension and longing and restraint and recriminations and all the other good things you find in a really delicious romance.
For Darkness Shows the Stars is more like Austen than some other modern or SF/fantasy re-tellings in that Peterfreund concentrates a lot on the society and the complexities of her two leads and not as much on the plot. That’s not to say that there isn’t a plot, but this is certainly a character-driven story. Readers looking for a more “traditional” dystopian/post-apocalyptic novel that features plenty of action and shocking plot revelations will be disappointed. 
Readers looking for a steamy romance will also be disappointed – Elliot and Kai barely even touch. But it’s swoon-worthy all the same, for the same reason modern readers still find Austen’s original works swoon-worthy: mature, lovely writing that connects us so closely to Elliot and Kai that we feel each misunderstanding, each look, each unspoken sentiment keenly. It makes for a pretty intense read, and it’s a testament to Peterfreund’s writing that she’s made a book with almost zero physical contact so romantic.
I was pleased with the way she wrote the society as well. It’s an impressive feat of world-building, with plenty of detail that unfolds naturally over the course of the story. Unlike many stories that feature a blighted future society, this one makes sense in the context of the story’s events. It’s also not sensationalized. The Reduction is a terrible thing, and what the Luddites did to the Reduced and the Posts since then is also terrible, but I never felt that it was done to shock. And for all that this setting is so very different from that of today and is so vital to the story, it’s still just the setting. The real story is about Elliot and Kai’s relationship, and Peterfreund doesn’t make their desire to investigate the Reduction the primary plot point. Their relationship and their own growth as individuals are what she is most concerned with.
For Darkness Shows the Stars was a real breath of fresh air for me. It’s a dystopia and a romance and an Austen re-telling, but it’s a unique story and not a carbon copy of anything else. Plus the writing is excellent. Highly recommended.
Book borrowed from my local library.

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

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The Book of Blood and Shadow is the first book I read where reading the review copy actually impinged significantly on my enjoyment of the story. All review copies are going to have some mistakes, and they usually don’t bug me. They’re occasionally jarring, but don’t interrupt the flow of the story or draw my attention away from some really good writing.
Unfortunately, this review copy (with a plain black cover and red text) was riddled with errors. I started reading it well before the book was published, set it down, and then came back to it several months later when the hardcover was already out. I really should have traded it in for the finished copy at that point, but the arc was too handy. It was certainly a lesson to me.
I mention all this before I get into the nitty gritty of the review because the errors greatly influenced my reading experience. I’ve a feeling a lot of my problems were due to my reading the unfinished version.
There’s no doubt the plot is intriguing (it’s what drew me to the book in the first place). Nora is working on a special project for a professor at the local university, alongside her best friend Chris and Chris’ roommate Max. While Chris and Max (both college students) work closely with the professor in his attempt to decipher the famous Voynich manuscript – a book full of secrets, written in code – Nora (a senior in high school) is given a series of related letters to translate from Latin into modern English. Nora and Max eventually start dating, and Wasserman excels at making this romance sweet and believable.
But then Chris is murdered, and his girlfriend (and Nora’s friend) Adriane is found kneeling over his body, covered in blood and catatonic. Max is nowhere to be found, and he quickly shoots to the top of the suspect list. Convinced that Max is innocent, Nora and Adriane (once she recovers) set out to discover who killed Chris, and why. This journey takes them to Prague, where they’re pulled deep into a dangerous conspiracy involving a device that people say could link them to God – and the letters Nora was translating, written by a young woman named Elizabeth Weston, hold the key.
There’s an incredible amount of danger here, and it’s real danger – Wasserman doesn’t skimp on the violence. It’s kind of harrowing to think about, really. Here are these two kids, completely alone in a foreign land where nobody really speaks their language, and they’re being pursued by at least two different groups who intend them serious harm. Add to that the fact that they soon discover no one can be trusted, and the sense of paranoia reaches epic proportions.
So, I liked this book. But I didn’t love it. What bothered me most is that the story seemed choppy. Sometimes I had to read a few paragraphs over to determine what precisely had happened. Occasionally a reference would be missing or a pronoun incorrect. Since the book also included frequent typos and grammatical errors, I feel sure that the choppiness was fixed in final edits. Ultimately, it stopped me from becoming fully immersed in the story.
A lot of what didn’t work for me I can write off as a matter of taste. Nora begins by trusting her friends and boyfriend completely, and that trust is put to the test time and again throughout the story. Almost all of the people close to Nora morph into thoroughly unlikeable people, and by the end of the story, it just made me feel depressed. I do like some books that are quite dark, but this one rubbed me the wrong way. I’m being purposely vague here so as not to spoil anything, but I can say that there’s a difference between a book that kills off the protagonist’s loved ones and a book that robs the protagonist of her loved ones in other ways. I just felt awful for Nora and thankful her story wasn’t real. (Did I mention that Nora’s younger brother died in a drunk driving accident a few years ago? Girl cannot catch a break.)
Despite my issues with it, the book should have high appeal. It’s got a great hook, the pace is quick, the mood is spot on, and it’s different enough from the usual fare to spark interest. It’s a smart, mature book that should appeal to anyone who’s ever been interested in any of history’s famous mysteries (Stonehenge, Easter Island, the Shroud of Turin, etc.). Nora’s voice also comes through nice and strong, something I always appreciate. 
Review copy received from the publisher. The Book of Blood and Shadow is available now.