STACKED

books

Stay with Me by Paul Griffin

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Mack’s a high school drop out, and he’s been tasked with a mission by his soon-to-be-deployed friend Tony, and that’s to take care of his sister CeCe. Mack’s skeptical of Tony’s request, part because he doesn’t think he’s good enough to take care of CeCe and part because he thinks CeCe is a knockout and the kind of girl he dreams about. In other words, he’s afraid to get too close, ruin his chances with her, and ruin his friendship with Tony all together.

The thing is, though, Mack lets himself get close to CeCe, and soon, they’re a couple. Soon, he’s falling head over heels with her, and he knows she’s the only girl for him. Even though she doesn’t share some of the passions he does, he wants to be with her. But he’s also afraid to let her in on his secrets and on his past.

Mack’s biggest talent, and the one thing he thrives on, is his ability to train dogs, specifically pits. When he finds a pit who has been abandoned, he takes her in and wants to rehabilitate her. This scares CeCe, who had been a victim of a dog attack before. But slowly, Mack turns CeCe around and teaches her that even a dog with a reputation can be loved. She believes him so much that she wants to adopt the rescue, which Mack named Boo. And that’s when the story takes off.

It takes little time before Mack finds himself in prison, then finds himself in solitary confinement, then finds himself in the position to completely change his life around using his talents. But he also knows he’s really screwed up his future. He worries he’ll never get to be with CeCe again. He doesn’t know if he can live with that, either.

Stay with Me is a fast-paced, urban novel that will appeal to fans of Simone Elkeles, as well as those who like their stories with edge. The characters in this story are what you’d imagine them to be: hard, passionate, and gritty. They’re all good at the core, though, even if they make huge mistakes. That’s what I liked about this book so much, though: as readers, we know that these are all good characters and that they make mistakes and that they are learning from them. As much as we get to know Mack’s huge mistake from his perspective, we also learn that Tony’s decision to enlist as a combat medic ends up being quite a bit of a mistake. CeCe’s no perfect girl, either. She’s struggling with a home life that’s anything but perfect, and she knows that whatever happens to her brother overseas will inevitably impact what goes on at home with her and her alcoholic mother.

Griffin’s book is a plot-driven narrative, but he doesn’t sacrifice character development. I loved how the three main characters in this story grew into themselves and one another over the course of the story, and I felt like it was extremely authentic. There was no ah ha moment for them. The events in their lives forced them to adapt, which inevitably forced them to grow. They became stronger for that.

The romance in this book is simultaneously hot and sweet, which is why I think this book will appeal to fans of Elkeles’s titles. Although CeCe and Mack seem to get together quickly, despite Mack’s initial reluctance due to his own history and reputation, it doesn’t feel false or contrived. Big brother Tony had a hitch they would be good together, and it simply took them actually being alone together for things to start. The way their relationship developed felt real, too, as it started slow and tenuous but rapidly moved into something more. If I were being honest, though, I’d say I felt that Mack was a little too in love immediately and I felt that, at times, he became a little too involved with the idea of CeCe, rather than the true CeCe. This ends up being the thing, of course, that helps him power through his time in jail.

Despite all of the things that really worked for me in this book, there was almost an over reliance on happenstance in the last third of the book. While Mack’s in jail, he has the opportunity to work with an organization that uses criminals to rehabilitate abused and neglected dogs. It’s perfect for him, and though this sort of organization doesn’t really exist, Griffin notes at the end of the novel that such things have been tried before and proven successful both for the animal and for the criminal who gains a sense of self and responsibility — and frankly, I thought this element of the story was important because it shows that even “broken” people can be fixed. However, the dog that Mack ends up working with and training to adoptability ends up becoming a convenient tool to tying him back with CeCe. See, when he goes to jail, he avoids CeCe as much as possible, but in working through this program, he’s brought back to her in a way that inevitably changes their relationship. It felt too convenient and was too predictable. For a novel that kept me surprised and engaged, this last third fell apart for me because it went too much down the obvious path.

Can I also say that this cover is fantastic? What a perfectly fitting cover to the story, and I think it has mega appeal to the intended readership. Hand this book off to your urban contemporary readers. I think this will have appeal to those who like a good romance story, as well as those who like stories that include crime. In my community, my teens are very interested in stories about gangs, and even though this book doesn’t tread into that territory, I know this book will find a good readership with that audience. It’s a story about change and growth and overcoming one’s past, which is precisely what I think appeals to fans of that genre/niche. This is a fast paced story, and I think despite the length, it will appeal to more reluctant readers.

Review copy picked up at ALA. Stay with Me will be available September 8.

Reviews Twitter-style

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I’ve been able to read a ton of things lately, but typing up in-depth reviews for everything I read is impossible. So, here’s a few books I’ve dove into recently and my thoughts on them, Twitter-style. Of course, they’re a little longer than 140 characters, but these are short and to the point.

Where Things Come Back bu John Corey Whaley: This quiet contemporary gem is a story about small town life. Told through dual, seemingly unrelated narratives, this layered and nuanced story introduces us to Cullen, whose brother Gabriel has just disappeared. While everyone searches high and low for Gabriel, Cullen begins his own mourning process. At the same time, we meet an academic hell bent on finding meaning in faith who is so driven by uncorking the mysteries of life and the afterlife, that he becomes delusional and destructive. Both narratives tie together over a man named John Barling, who has come to Lily, Arkansas and claims he has rediscovered the elusive Lazarus Woodpecker. This story of faith and belief is one that will appeal to those who like sharp story telling and more literary works. Faith, family, and small-town politics are all at play and all given even-handed, fair treatment, and Cullen’s voice in this story is knockout: it’s rich, authentic, and full of emotion that begs the reader to feel things right along with him. I suspect this is the kind of book that might see some Morris attention this year because it really is that good.

The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell: This historical fiction, set in 1899, follows Amelia van den Broek as she’s sent from her home in rural Maine to live with her cousin Zora’s family in wealthy and stylish Balitmore. The goal, of course, is for her to court a suitable man and settle down but things go a bit awry. See, Amelia can see the future, and as much as it becomes a fun parlor trick that bemuses the girls in Zora’s social circle, it becomes a burden when the futures start to play out in ways that ruin lives. This is a well-paced story that exudes the historical setting, right down to the language and lush, sometimes extravagant, settings. It’s a clean story, too, and one that will appeal to a wide range of young adult readers. I’m eager to go back and read Mitchell’s first novel, Shadowed Summer, and I am happy to say that this book left me eager to read the next book in this series. It was that engaging and fresh that, when I finished, I anticipated future installments in Amelia’s story.

Kiss & Tell by MariNaomi: This graphic novel is one for fans of Julia Wertz. Naomi’s written a memoir that follows all of the relationships she’s been through. Rather than focus only on the romantic aspects of them, she broaches other things that worked or didn’t work in the relationship. She begins with her youngest relationships — those little kisses and “I like you” sort of things that happen in elementary school — then delves into the later relationships. Although I liked the concept, the book was a little too long for me and felt uneven, as there was a lot of emphasis on those very early relationships and not enough on the later relationships, which had more depth and made for more interesting reading. For a first novel, though, it was a good effort, and it has piqued my interest in future stories from MariNaomi. This book would be fine for older teens and definitely adult readers, and it’s completely LGBTQ friendly. Be prepared for reading and seeing what happens in real, honest relationships. That is to say, there is nudity and it’s unflinching at times (and sometimes in a really funny way, too).

The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt: This story was uneven for me, as it’s set in the 1980s for no good reason (actually, I think anyone knows the big reason books are set in this time period frequently is that it’s often a way to avoid technology and because it’s a time period that many authors are comfortable with, having experienced it themselves). Likewise, I found it a bit jarring to read a story told through the eyes of an 18-year-old about being 13, as it was a little too self-reflective. That said, Reinhardt’s style continues to grow on me, as she’s a slow reveal storyteller, and her writing is tight. Drew is an interesting character, and I loved the setting in a cheese shop. Perhaps my favorite part of the story was the use of her father’s notebooks as a way to discover who she is and a way to figure out how to be her own person. I loved seeing how much Drew related to the father she didn’t know through his life lists, and I loved how, despite not wanting to be a list keeper herself, she is, and we as readers get to see her become a strong, independent person.

Dark Souls by Paula Morris: Morris’s debut novel Ruined is one of my favorite books to book talk because it has a mix of so many good elements — it’s a ghost story, it’s got a great setting in New Orleans and builds upon the lore of the city to enhance the ghost story, and it’s a story about a girl fitting in as an outsider. It’s clean and well paced, and it’s one of my perennial book talk picks. I was thrilled to get to read Morris’s second novel, also a ghost story, but this one was set in York, England, following a horrific accident that led Miranda to discover she had a power to see things that don’t really exist. The setting and lore upon which this story is built wasn’t as strong nor memorable as it was in Ruined, and I found the story to drag in more than one place. The romantic elements fell flat and were uninteresting to me, and even after finishing what should have been a really enjoyable supernatural story, I found myself disappointed. That said, I think fans of Ruined will like this one, and it’s appropriate for younger and older teen readers who want a spooky story that doesn’t rely on witchcraft or paranormal romance. It’s a true ghost story.

And Then Things Fall Apart by Arlaina Tibensky

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Karina — who goes by the nickname Keek — might be having the worst summer of her entire life. She and her best friend are having a fight because her best friend wronged her. She and her boyfriend are also on the outs because of her virginity (yes, her virginity). Her parents are in the midst of a divorce because her father cheated on her mother with one of his employees, who is hardly older than she is and as a way to “clear her mind,” her mother abandons her to spend time across the country with her new-born cousin who may be dying.

It sounds like a recipe for a standard teen drama, but add to this that Keek is also sick with the chicken pox and is living in her grandmother’s technology-free zone with her favorite book (Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar) and her father hiding out in the basement, and you have a book that really stands out — it’s funny, insightful, passionate, and one of the most relatable books I’ve read in a long time.

Although the premise makes the book sound like it’s going to be a serious novel, the book is actually quite funny. Keek’s got a strange but powerful sense of humor, which includes avoiding swearing, in favor of using the term “sofa king.” But more than that, it’s obvious that her being sick with chicken pox, which affects the immune system of teens and adults much differently than it does in younger kids, has given her some perspective on the issues in her life. That, in conjunction with being alone with no way to communicate with her friends, has given her so much space to think.

There is very little dialog in this book. It’s all told from Keek’s point of view, and it’s told through diary form. When Keek moved into her grandmother’s tech-free zone, her grandmother gifts her a type writer (hence the cover), and it’s what keeps Keek occupied during her two weeks of the pox. But as much as it’s a diary she’s keeping, Keek is also aware that it’s not private. She’s sharing this story much like an author writes a book — for an audience of outside readers to consider, appreciate, and take from it what they need. Her grandmother’s been paging through it (Keek figures this one out through a few conversations she does have with her grandmother) and as much as it bothers her to know her grandmother is reading about the fight between her and her boyfriend over her virginity, she’s also a bit flattered someone wants to read about her life.

See, the key part of this story is that it is a love story to writing and to literature. Keek is passionately in love with Sylvia Plath’s classic The Bell Jar. Like any teen book worm, she rereads it, over and over again, and she commits to memory many of the passages and moments in the story that she relates to. She often asks herself what Esther Greenwood would do in a situation and, at times, she considers what Plath herself would do, given that The Bell Jar is semi-autobiographical. For me, this theme of the story was key to what made this book so relatable and such an enjoyable read; I got Keek completely. She wasn’t a loner by any means, but she really found passion in the written word and she wanted to grasp it and live it in any way she could. She didn’t hide behind books, but rather, she let them become a part of who she is and let them help guide her in figuring out how to solve the problems in her life.

I’ve read books before where the character becomes so enamored with another fictional character that they allow that literary figure become their role model and their moral compass. But in Tibensky’s story, Keek is completely her own person. She’s extremely different from Esther Greenwood, and yet she’s able to relate to that character and consider the actions that character would take in her situation and adjust accordingly. Whereas Esther traps herself in a bell jar, Keek wants to break free from hers, and she takes the steps possible to make that happen. I thought this device was employed well, and I thought that the use of The Bell Jar as an obsession for a 15-year-old girl couldn’t be more spot on. At 15, it was one of those books for me, so I understood Keek’s passion and devotion. Those feels still resonate for me when I read the right book, and I think any reader will get this completely.

Voice is easily the strongest element in this story, and it has to be, since the story is focused entirely on Keek’s internal thoughts and observations of life around her. Besides being funny, she’s a real, honest 15-year-old. She fixates on things that aren’t important, and as readers, we know she needs to do that to solve the broader issues and gain perspective on them. For instance, one night near the end of her sickness when she’s finally able to get out of her room and wander her grandmother’s house, she heads to the basement where her father’s living, and she fixates on the couch from her old house. It brings up a million memories and it triggers a host of emotions within her. But it’s that couch that causes her to delve a little deeper into her father’s room and discover that everything she thought about him and his actions that caused the decline of his marriage may have had a deeper reasoning behind them. Perhaps her mother wasn’t as innocent as she thought. I loved this way of giving us insight into the issues of Keek’s life because it felt authentic.

As much as I enjoyed this book, I did have a little bit of a challenge with how smart the book was. I don’t mean how smart Keek was, nor how smart the way she unraveled the underlying issues around her were. The book itself was a little too smart in its use of literature and writing, and at times, it bordered on too meta. Sometimes I wanted to be able to get it for myself, but instead, it was handed to me on a philosophical level that didn’t quite ring true to the voice and understanding of a 15-year-old, no matter how much a book worm she was. I don’t think this will be a turn off for readers, though, as I suspect many teens who will relate to Keek will think they’re just as deep as she is, despite a lack of life experience and perspective to prove otherwise to them.

I think this would be a good book to hand to fans of Leila Sales’s Mostly Good Girls because of the voice, but it’s one that I think most teen girls who like to read will appreciate. If this one had been around when I was 15, I could see it becoming a bit of my own Bell Jar. It was the little things — the setting in suburban Chicago, the passion for reading, the family issues — that resonated with me on a real personal level, and I can’t wait to start talking this book up with my big readers. Teen readers of classics will enjoy this one, too, as will your fans of Sylvia Plath (and you know who those kids are!). This is the kind of book where your passionate readers will underline passages and soak them in, mimicking Keek’s actions with Plath’s novel. Even I admit to underlining and noting a few really good lines in her, including my favorite, “This is the thing about great literature. It reads like truth and sticks to you forever and lets you know you’re not alone.” What a knockout debut.

Copy received from the publisher. And Then Things Fall Apart is available now.

Want to Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman

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I didn’t get the internet at home until I was 13. Back then, chatting was what we know as social networking now, and most of my gaming/chatting was limited to a few writing forums on AOL and Neopets (anyone honest would admit to that sort of thing!). But today, most kids have had internet as part of their entire lives, and that’s the topic that Littman chooses to explore in her powerful and important new novel, Want to Go Private?

Abby Johnston is 14, and she’s been best friends with Faith since second grade. They do everything together. The thing is, Abby feels like she’s been growing away from Faith lately, as well as growing apart from her family and the support structures that have always been in her life. They’re beginning high school, and while Faith has taken this opportunity to explore who she is and what she looks like, Abby remains comfortable being the quiet, shy, unflashy girl. Unfortunately, though, this means that their friendship’s been a bit strained lately, and now Abby feels that the extent of her friendship with Faith now exists in their online chats through the new social networking site ChezTeen.

But unlike a lot of people who use these sites to meet new people, the two of them mostly keep to themselves and talk with one another. Abby knows she’s not supposed to talk to strangers, but all of those rules start to change when one guy — BlueSkyBoi (real name: Luke) — begins to take a shine to Abby on this website. He gets to know her through their private ChezTeen chats, and he offers her the sympathetic and understanding ear that no one else in Abby’s life seems to want to lend. Before she realizes it, she’s fallen into the belief that Luke really cares for her and that she knows him well enough to trust that meeting him in person might be a good idea.

But that’s not going to end up being a good idea.

Want to Go Private? is powerful and cautionary tale, perfect for middle and high school students. Although so much of what’s explored here feels like it’s fairly obvious, it’s not. Though today’s teens have grown up with the internet as an extension of themselves, the fact of the matter is so few have real experience with how to detach that digital world from the real, physical world. Moreover, many are unaware how dangerous taking things from the digital world to the physical world can be. Abby, who is going into high school, falls into what so many teens can easily fall into: trusting someone who says and does all the right things online and pursing an opportunity to meet him.

But this isn’t just about what happens when the online goes into the real world, this is about what happens when someone invests too much in their online world, too. Abby gets caught up in feeling very comfortable with Luke — so comfortable, she takes photos of herself without clothing and in vulnerable manners for his pleasure. She does it to please him and to feel like she belongs to someone. Like so many teens today who do things like this and who engage in sexting, Abby dives in with trust and with the belief that she is invincible. The problem is, of course, that she isn’t, and no one really is. And it’s here that Littman’s story becomes cautionary and scary.

Littman sets up her novel quite smartly. It’s told through Abby’s voice initially, and her voice is so likable and relatable, she is easy to immediately buy. I trusted her when she began talking with Luke, and like her, I thought Luke was a nice guy. My adult instincts kicked in, of course, when he began soliciting her for photos and then suggested meeting somewhere, but I could really understand why Abby wanted to do these things. She felt alone and vulnerable, and in talking with Luke, she felt understood and she felt valued, even if it wasn’t necessarily for the right reasons.

Then Littman shakes up the narrative. It’s not just Abby we hear from. We get the chance to hear the story through Faith’s voice, through the voice of Abby’s sister Lily, and through the voice of Billy, a boy from Abby’s school who has a true and genuine crush on her. This structure works well because it gives a great view into how something that seems innocent can have a huge impact on an entire network of people. I found all of the voices here well written and compelling, and they added a lot to Abby’s story. Whereas I believe the entire book could have been told from Abby’s point of view, getting the story from the other characters tightened up the story and provided an opportunity to may not feel entirely sympathetic for Abby. That’s not to say we don’t, but the trick in a story told through one perspective is that we only get that single story; getting it from a couple perspectives here works, since we can see something from a different, less biased eye.

Want to Go Private? is not an easy book to read, as it left me feeling creeped out more than once. Moreover, Abby is taken advantage of in a manner that is extremely difficult to read, and it happens more than once. The thing is, these scenes are absolutely vital to the story line; while they could have been done off page, they wouldn’t have the impact that they have on page. The beauty of this method is that those who are uncomfortable with reading the graphic scenes can skip over them and grasp the impact as much as someone who wants/needs to read them.

My one criticism of the book comes at the end of the story. Once Abby has been through hell and back, she’s been given the opportunity to become a spokesperson of sorts at her school (much in the way she becomes a bit of a spokesperson through the novel itself). In these moments, she feels almost a little too preachy, too experienced. Although her life changed in unimaginable ways and certainly she became an “adult” far before she was ready, I didn’t believe she’d talk to her peers in the manner she did. That said, I think younger readers won’t necessarily believe this is too preachy — it’s sort of the tone they’d expect to hear in a novel like this. Older teen readers, though, will likely not buy into some of the lessons. They picked them up throughout the story and don’t need them laid out so bluntly at the end.

Littman’s book would make a great addition to book discussions or classroom discussions, as there is so much to work with. When I presented this book as a potential title for my teen book group, they were extremely interested in reading it. There is a layer of appeal to this story because this story is one that is such a part of this age group’s lives.

Although there are some hard-to-read scenes, I wouldn’t have a problem selling this one to middle schoolers — I almost think the shock factors would be the lesson many sort of need to see played out to understand how important internet safety truly is. This is the kind of book anyone who wondered “what if” will appreciate. It’s a well paced book, and one that tackles a topic that’s been important for quite a while but not necessarily approached. It’s a title with quite a bit of staying power, as I think the storyline is something that will be relatable to teens for a long time to come. Bonus: Littman’s created an entire website, chezteen.com, to talk about the issues her book presents, and it’s approachable for teens, teachers, and other educators.

ARC picked up at Book Expo America.

A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

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It’s Bren whose lips are on Rosalinda’s when she wakes from her 62 year sleep. But it wasn’t an ordinary sleep; this was a stasis sleep, one which she was put into under suspect reasons and left in for far longer than she should have been.

That 62 years means many things have changed, and it means that Rose slept through the Dark Times. Now she’s learning about it in her history class and needs to know more than just the events she’s slept through. Where are her parents? Why was she left to sleep that long? Where is her long time love Xavier? And what does Bren have to do with all of this? Why was it his kiss that awoke her from this sleep?

A Long Long Sleep was one of the strongest books I’ve read in a while, and it’s so different from my usual reading fare. This story is science fiction with a melding of fantasy, as it’s a bit of a retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty. It’s one that’s a little bit slower paced, but that’s because there is so much revealing to happen, both for the readers and for the main character, that that speed is necessary. It works well, and the writing itself is strong enough to sustain the pace and the plot.

As readers, we’re immediately dropped into Rose’s world right along with her. We aren’t familiar with the place she’s at, though there are certain elements that make sense and certain elements that emerge that are realistic. There’s big corporations and the role they place in society, pitted against ideas of science and nature, as well as the deep down love story at play between Rose and Xavier — and it’s this love story that really kept me reading.

We know from the beginning that when Rose entered her long stasis, she was in love with a boy named Xavier. We know there was a little bit of an age difference between the two of them, but each time Rose talks about Xavier, the age issue changes slightly, as does her perception of what they were and what they could have been had they had the chance. Bren, the boy who wakes Rose, becomes her close friend during the course of their time together, but she knows that he can never be a replacement for Xavier, and she tells him as much (and regularly). But as readers, we know there is something deeper going on with Bren, and we know he has to play a larger role in Rose’s life than she thinks. It’s both predictable and a twist when his role in the story is revealed.

As I alluded to earlier, the strongest part of this story is that we’re dropped into the story right where Rose is, and we learn everything about her world along with her. Sheehan’s decision to develop her story this way means that there are a lot of questions to be answered, and we’re left wondering if what we predict to be true really is or if we’re going to be surprised. For me, there were a lot of surprises, especially when it came to understanding why Rose underwent stasis in the first place and what experiences her parents had during the Dark Times. I was completely absorbed in this world. I wanted to know more, and with each piece of the story coming into place, I felt like I understood and sympathized with Rose more and more.

The politics in this book are worth noting as well: much like the recent XVI by Julia Karr, there is a lot of discussion of corporate control and power in this book. Some of these passages were among the most interesting for me, simply because I wanted to know where Rose stood on the issue as the person who is at the center of this corporation. I can’t say much more without spoiling that aspect of the story, but she wakes into a world where she is both powerless and all powerful, and Sheehan offers us a chance to watch Rose navigate this gulf.

Of course, there were some weaknesses in plotting and story telling here. Part of the challenge in this book was that Sheehan tries to incorporate a few too many elements into an already complex and interesting story. Though the story is told mostly in traditional language, she does offer up a few new words in the language of this society and it doesn’t work particularly well. It could have been left out entirely, and as readers, we would have still understood the futuristic world setting. Moreover, a few other plot holes emerged through the course of unraveling the storyline, and a lot of them felt a little too convenient for me as a reader (this is naturally the downside of a book where you learn the story along with the character). That said, these aspects of the story did not make the book weak, given the strength of the writing and the uniqueness of Rose and the world as a whole.

A Long, Long Sleep will appeal to fans of fairy tale retellings with a twist, as well as fans of science fiction with a little bit of a dystopian swing to it, like Karr’s XVI. It’s an engaging world, and through the way the story builds, this is the kind of book that could appeal to traditional non-genre readers, as well. It bends through a few different genres and twists expectations.

Book received from the publisher. A Long, Long Sleep publishes today.