I can’t help but wonder if what I didn’t enjoy in Jessica Anya Blau’s Mary Jane was just me being defensive. I mean, my book club mostly found it readable, believable, and open and fair to both families presented in it. Meanwhile, I came ready to say that it was yes, readable, but not believable…
I couldn’t help but like Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter. It ticked some enormous, interest boxes for me, so even if it was just okay, I would have been engaged. But it was better than okay. It’s a good read and a well-done YA thriller (light on the thriller but heavy on the YA). I enjoyed…
I really enjoyed Little Thieves by Margaret Owen. I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t even notice it was first person, present tense until I was practically done reading it, which is a testament to when that very thing works for YA. First-person is the most popular POV these days for YA and present…
Finally, a Neil Gaiman book that really agrees with me. Everyone else seems to admire his work so assiduously, but me… it either wasn’t my flavor (American Gods) or I thought it was not very good (The Ocean at the End of the Lane). While I had no idea what was coming to me with…
A Monster Calls (2011) by Patrick Ness is a sad, somewhat difficult YA book that borders on a novella and, in the end, is rewarding. It is also magical, but avoids the obnoxiousness of overly-fable-y books to drive home some very real points about coming of age, death, and guilt, while the backstory about this…
I have decided that from now on, I am going to give a brief synopsis of my review right off the bat, then a synopsis of the book. Only then will I take forever telling you about it. Good idea? To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2014) by Jenny Han is YA to the…
Here’s the thing: in the spirit of no spoilers, I fear the marketing and reviews of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James are so cautious that they don’t adequately warn a reader what they are getting into. This is not a romance. This is not a light-hearted coming-of-age story. The blips out…
If you have not read this novel (and/or seen the movie), perhaps you are a little out of the loop or a little old? It is a modern manifesto of the teen life, since the late 90s but still extremely loved and adopted by each decade of teens since. The Perks of Being a Wallflower…
Another month, another read-aloud middle grades novel about nature, pets, and a boy coming of age. After the last few classics with their super sad endings, my son and I were both hoping for Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, to be more light-hearted. I wouldn’t call it light-hearted, but I would say you don’t have to…
Two reasons I am reviewing “one of the best films of 2012”: It is a book adaptation of the 1999 epistolary novel by Stephen Chbosky (and Chbosky directed! How jealous am I?); it is about an aspiring writer. The bit about him being a future writer is in the background (probably just a fragment left…
the starving artist 