Review: Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman

Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Contemporary, 208 pages, Wendy Lamb Books

• Series: stand-alone
• Pub date: May 8th 2012
• Disclosure: Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Thanks!

 Judged by its cover: Girl in a bikini looking away from the camera? Normally this cover would set off all my nervous tics, but actually, with this book it works. It's a little too sunny, a little too sexy, and you can practically smell the ocean--which sums up this story pretty well.

Goodreads blurb:

It’s the summer before senior year and the alluring Angel is ready to have fun. She’s not like her best friend, Inggy, who has a steady boyfriend, good grades, and college plans. Angel isn’t sure what she wants to do yet, but she has confidence and experience beyond her years. Still, her summer doesn’t start out as planned. Her good friend Joey doesn’t want to fool around anymore, he wants to be her boyfriend, while Angel doesn’t want to be tied down. As Joey pulls away, and Inggy tours colleges, Angel finds herself spending more time with Inggy’s boyfriend, Cork. With its cast of vivid and memorable characters, this tale from the Jersey shore is sure to make some waves.

The Long...

There's always been a lot of discussion about sex, violence, and profanity and their place in YA--most especially profanity of late (author Beth Ann Bauman was even interviewed for the School Library Journal article). I tend to lean on the grittier side of YA, anyway, so all this talk of darkness and dirty sex and f-bombs makes me shrug a little and move on with my day. Teens lead gritty lives. Deal with it.

Very occasionally, however, I run across a book that crosses some lines--for me, personally. Maybe for someone else, Jersey Angel wouldn't raise any eyebrows at all. That someone is bound to be a little more adventurous than me. (And I should point out that being more adventurous than a bookworm farm girl nerd isn't all that difficult, anyways.)

It's not that I didn't like Jersey Angel--the opposite, really--so much as it felt beyond me, like I was a freshman hanging out at the senior table. Ironic, because these characters are supposed to be exactly my age--and yet they are so very worldly. It's not just that this book has some of the most explicit sex I've ever read in a YA. It's the attitudes behind the sex, the swearing, everything--a sort of bleak desperate mindlessness--that got me. It's funny that a book about teenagers on the Jersey Shore should remind me so much of Mad Men, but it does. The characters self-destruct so thoroughly and effectively that you can't look away.

Still, Bauman has a knack for writing characters and dialogue that feel so real they might as well be on a Jersey Shore documentary (or reality TV show, I guess, though our protagonist Angel is a great deal more sympathetic than Snooki). Her story is smart, real, and oddly heartbreaking, even as it ends on a hopeful note. For someone who spends an awful lot of time complaining about YA books that don't ring true, it's a funny feeling to find one that rings so true I can't hardly stand to read it.

In a way, it feels like a book written more for college kids looking back on their high school years than for actual 17-year-olds. The recklessness, cruelty, and confusion of high school portrayed here just hits a little too close to home for me.

...and the Short:

Smart, real, and gritty, you can't look away as Bauman's characters slowly self-destruct--like it or not.

The Final Word: Liked it.

Review: The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry

The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Steampunk, 354 pages, Amulet Books

• Series: Setup for a sequel, but I don't think there's been one announced yet.
• Pub date: May 1st 2012
• Disclosure: Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Thanks!

 Judged by its cover: Pretty terrible. Sure, you get the steampunk feel of the book, but the wings are creepy and the girl looking over her shoulder is just too melodramatic for me.

Goodreads blurb:

This dark and thrilling adventure, with an unforgettable heroine, will captivate fans of steampunk, fantasy, and romance. On her 18th birthday, Lena Mattacascar decides to search for her father, who disappeared into the northern wilderness of Scree when Lena was young. Scree is inhabited by Peculiars, people whose unusual characteristics make them unacceptable to modern society. Lena wonders if her father is the source of her own extraordinary characteristics and if she, too, is Peculiar. On the train she meets a young librarian, Jimson Quiggley, who is traveling to a town on the edge of Scree to work in the home and library of the inventor Mr. Beasley. The train is stopped by men being chased by the handsome young marshal Thomas Saltre. When Saltre learns who Lena’s father is, he convinces her to spy on Mr. Beasley and the strange folk who disappear into his home, Zephyr House. A daring escape in an aerocopter leads Lena into the wilds of Scree to confront her deepest fears.

The Long...

Ever since steampunk became the next dystopia (and don't even get me started on steampunk dystopia), I've avoided as many gimmicky, cash-in releases as I can. I'm not quite sure why The Peculiars caught my eye--it sounds like a cash-in release if there ever was one--but I'm glad I picked it up. It's a pleasant, rollicking sort of book--not particularly memorable, but a good way to spend an afternoon all the same.

The problem, however, is with Lena Mattacascar; our protagonist. In addition to having an unintelligible last name and an insufferable identity crisis, I just couldn't buy that she was eighteen at all--especially in a pseudo-Victorian novel, where eighteen should be more like twenty-five in today's years. I wanted to sympathize with her quest to find her father and to figure out who she really is, but a few too many stupid  decisions and a questionable sort-of romance (despite an utterly adorable love interest) made it difficult to really get into Lena's story. The Peculiars reads a lot more like older middle grade to younger YA instead of the older YA it clearly aims to be, and I think the story might have gone a lot more smoothly if Lena had been fourteen or fifteen or even sixteen instead.

Still, it's great fun, even if it unfolds slowly. Zephyr House is in the greatest tradition of Victorian mansions with deep, dark secrets, and the idea of Peculiars is intriguing (and an interesting metaphor for race and all manner of diversity in 19th century America). The setting is cute, too, though it took me far too long to figure out that it was set in America instead of England--and even now, I'm still not quite sure where the Scree is supposed to be located. Once the motley gang make their daring escape in an aerocopter, the action really picks up, and by the end I was left curious about a sequel and where it might lead.

All in all, this book is a great example of why writing book after writing book says to start right in the middle of the action instead of worrying about a long lead-up and backstory. I still enjoyed it, but I'd have a hard time recommending it to readers with short attention spans. Steampunk fans eager for more will find a lot to love, but it's not going to convert the skeptics.

...and the Short:

An intriguing adventure that's a lot of fun, if marred by a slow pace and an angsty protagonist. Not a great pick for readers looking for action, but it's sure to appeal to steampunk fans.

The Final Word: Liked it. 

Review: Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves

Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, 505 pages, Simon Pulse

• Series: companion to Bleeding Violet
• Pub date: January 4th 2011
• Disclosure: Bought a copy. Yay!

Judged byits cover: Love, love, love. Just the right combination of sweet, quirky, and creepy for this book. The photo is great and the font is even better.

 Goodreads blurb:

Kit and Fancy Cordelle are sisters of the best kind: best friends, best confidantes, and best accomplices. The daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, Kit and Fancy are used to feeling like outsiders, and that’s just the way they like it. But in Portero, where the weird and wild run rampant, the Cordelle sisters are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around.
It’s no surprise when Kit and Fancy start to give in to their deepest desire—the desire to kill. What starts as a fascination with slicing open and stitching up quickly spirals into a gratifying murder spree. Of course, the sisters aren’t killing just anyone, only the people who truly deserve it. But the girls have learned from the mistakes of their father, and know that a shred of evidence could get them caught. So when Fancy stumbles upon a mysterious and invisible doorway to another world, she opens a door to endless possibilities….

The Long...

I don't know why I put off reading this book for so long. I think I was terrified it wouldn't live up to the gorgeously f**ked up promise of Reeves' debut, Bleeding Violet. I think, in a way, I was almost more terrified it would, because while Reeves is working on a third book, neither title nor release date have been announced, and I wasn't sure I could bear the wait.

I'm still not sure I can bear the wait, because--unsurprisingly in hindsight--Slice of Cherry was even better than Bleeding Violet, and I can't wait to explore more of Reeves' wickedly lovely world.

It takes guts to write about a couple of sweet-and-on-the-verge-of-sexy sisters that also happen to be serial killers and make them sympathetic, and indeed, we are as often horrified by Kit and Fancy as we are surprised and delighted. But as with schizophrenic Hanna of Bleeding Violet, Reeves has proven herself exceptionally talented at creating anti-heroines we love to be creeped out by.

The most interesting thing about Slice of Cherry for me was its unabashed lack of any real plot. Unlike most horror--especially YA horror--driven by ticking time bombs and plot so thick you could stand a spoon in it, Reeves rests the heft (and at 505 pages, there is a lot of heft) of the novel on her characters and the quirky mythology of Portero. For me, it's a more satisfying kind of horror: the story has a venus flytrap quality to it, blooming slow and sweet, and while it might not keep readers flying through the pages, it's captivating in its own way.

It's also very definitely for older teens and adult readers, as the gore is exactly as nauseating (and nauseatingly riveting) as the blurb would suggest. It's one of the first books I'd hand to an adult who thinks YA is just for kids, as its exploration of violence, sex, and the intimate connections between the two is as complex and interesting as any I've read.


Excluding pulp series, YA horror is exceptionally hard to come by, and when I read one this good I'm even more confused as to why. Slice of Cherry pushes the envelope in all the right ways, and proves that Bleeding Violet wasn't just a fluke--Dia Reeves really is in it for the long haul, and I can't wait for book three!

...and the Short:

Gory, sexy, slow, and sweet--Slice of Cherry has it all, and establishes Dia Reeves as one of the most exciting YA authors out there. I want more!

The Final Word: Loved it. 

Diversity and YA covers: Why we need to keep talking about this.

I'll let Kate Hart's fantastic analysis of YA covers do the talking, as well as her follow-up: YA covers have a problem. And it's not just the angst face or the I have bemoaned in the past. It's that only 14% of YA covers feature a character of color--and even then, they're often obscured, looking away from the camera, or portrayed with a group of white friends. It's that not a single cover I have found features an LGBT couple holding hands, or portrayed in a romantic manner. To be fair, this is an entirely unscientific observation on my part, and there are covers out there that feature LGBT characters--but the complaint still stands.

At least there are covers out there like that of Huntress by Malinda Lo, featuring not only an Asian model looking directly at the camera, but also one who portrays a lesbian character:

And then there are covers like Julie Kagawa's The Immortal Rules, which so blatantly whitewashes an Asian character, it's sickening. (And for what it's worth, I think this cover design is hideously ugly, besides.)

That's why we need to keep talking about this--to send the message to publishers, once and for all, that it's about time their covers portrayed the actual demographics of the United States, instead of just what they think will sell books. It's why I make a concerted effort to buy books that feature people of color on the cover, like Huntress above, and get books like The Immortal Rules from the library.

Please note that I'm not talking about the content of these books at all--that's another blog post entirely--just the way that they're marketed, which is just as important a discussion. These things certainly aren't the authors' fault, and they say nothing about the quality of the book between the covers. It's publishers that need to get this message, loud and clear, and I'm hoping you'll help me send it. Put your money where your mouth is and start buying these books--if you look in the Kate Hart post, there's a great list of the titles that feature covers with PoCs. Write letters. Let's make a difference.

My BEA schedule...so far.

I wish I had a witty way to open this post, but really, I'm just too excited: in two weeks (almost exactly), I'm going to be in New York City for Book Expo America and its accompanying BEA Bloggers Conference!

I'm looking forward to getting the chance to explore and learn more about my favorite hobby, to meet as many of my favorite authors as I can cram into my schedule, to sightsee in one of my favorite cities in the world, and of course, to (hopefully) meet some of you, my fellow bibliophiles! I'll be around handing out business cards and generally looking dazed and blinking a lot.

Basically, if any of my readers are going to be in NYC anytime between the evening of June 3 and the afternoon of June 7, I'd love to meet you. Feel free to drop me a line at mdesmondobrien@gmail.com or call/text my cell phone at (763)-442-1560, and I'll do my best to say hi!

Of course, you're also free to stalk me in person--here are some of the events I'm planning on attending that week:

Monday, June 4th:

8:00-5:30 - BEA Bloggers Convention! I may duck out before it officially ends, but I'll hopefully stick around for the whole thing and I can't wait to network and meet so many of my blogging heroes in person!

I'm planning on leaving the evening free to meet with some lovely author friends and to explore the city.

Tuesday, June 5th:

8:00-9:30 - Adult Author Breakfast. Barbara Kingsolver is one of my all-time favorite authors, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet her in person.

10:00-10:50 - YA Editors Buzz, room 1E14/1E15. Looking forward to seeing what titles are going through the promotion machine this year.

3:00-5:00 - Meet the Apocalypsies, room 1E04. This year's debut author lineup looks great!


I'll also do my best to attend the Malinda Lo and Mary Casanova signings.


Wednesday, June 6th:

8:00-9:30 - Random House Power Readers Breakfast. I was so psyched to score an invite, and it looks like lots of awesome people will be there!

Other than that, looks like a whole lot of signings--Kristin Cashore, Maureen Johnson, Veronica Roth, and Libba Bray especially. You might see me at any or all of them; I'm playing it by ear! 


This is my main sightseeing and hanging-out-with-awesome-people day.


Thursday, June 7th:

Again, just signings--I'd really like to catch Maggie Stiefvater.


I'll be heading to the airport sometime that afternoon.

---

My mother and me will most likely come with dirt under our fingernails and smelling slightly of goats; if you really need help recognizing me, check out my Twitter avatar. I'll be the short, blonde, hippie-hipster child with the nose-ring.

Any other events I should know about? Have time for lunch, dinner, or just a quick hello? Let me know, and I can't wait to see you there!

Review: Black Heart by Holly Black

Black Heart by Holly Black
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Noir Mystery, 296 pages, Margaret K. McElderry

• Series: 3rd in the Curseworkers Trilogy (1st: White Cat, 2nd: Red Glove)
• Pub date: April 3rd 2012
• Disclosure: Bought a copy! Yay!

Judged by its cover: I think the art deco redesigns are an improvement over the photoshoot covers, but I'm still not entirely sold. Maybe it's the font, maybe I'm just picky, but I just don't feel these covers are right for this series.

Goodreads blurb:

 Cassel Sharpe knows he’s been used as an assassin, but he’s trying to put all that behind him. He’s trying to be good, even though he grew up in a family of con artists and cheating comes as easily as breathing to him. He’s trying to do the right thing, even though the girl he loves is inextricably connected with crime. And he’s trying to convince himself that working for the Feds is smart, even though he’s been raised to believe the government is the enemy.
But with a mother on the lam, the girl he loves about to take her place in the Mob, and new secrets coming to light, the line between what’s right and what’s wrong becomes increasingly blurred. When the Feds ask Cassel to do the one thing he said he would never do again, he needs to sort out what’s a con and what’s truth. In a dangerous game and with his life on the line, Cassel may have to make his biggest gamble yet—this time on love.

The Long...

Typing "noir mystery" into the genre section of this review was the biggest blogging thrill I have had in some time. There's something about a hardboiled detective story that I can't help but love--archetypes and atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere--and ever since Holly Black came out with the first Curseworkers novel back in 2010, I've been a fan of the series and its own particular spin on the noir genre. (Fun fact: White Cat was the first ARC I ever received.) Black's curseworking mythology--healing, giving luck, taking away memories, killing--fits so well with the mobster side of the story that it's hard to remember at times that this world doesn't actually exist. White Cat and Red Glove were easily among the most imaginative YA fantasy novels I've ever had the pleasure of reading, and Black Heart is more of the same.

Still, something about this one felt not quite like the rest. The plotting felt a little looser, the subplots wackier, the romance less pulse-pounding, Cassel's double- and triple-crossings a little more wearying, the ending less than satisfying. If I didn't know better, I'd say Black was resting on her (well-deserved) laurels. Since I do know better, I'll just say that this book must have been a damn sight harder to write. The characters I'd known and loved for two books and almost 600 previous pages just weren't the same, and it made me sad.

It certainly didn't help that White Cat and Red Glove weren't exactly fresh in my mind--Black doesn't waste any time reacquainting us with her creation, and dives right into the action instead. In fact, it took me three books to notice, but this is a trilogy that doesn't read like a trilogy of distinct novels at all, but rather three parts of the same--think Lord of the Rings. If you haven't read the first two, don't bother with this one. They're probably more enjoyable back to back, anyway.

Did this book disappoint me? A little. Is it still a kickass piece of creative, brilliant, riveting YA fantasy? Absolutely. I'm sad to bid farewell to the curseworking universe, but I'm thrilled to see what Black brings us next.

...and the Short:

A less-than-totally-satisfying, but still pretty awesome, conclusion to one of the most imaginative YA fantasy series out there. Bring on the femme fatales!

The Final Word: Liked it.

Spring cleaning giveaway winners!

I've done a lot of cleaning up over the past month, and also been on the receiving end of some incredible generosity from the book blogging world. That's why I decided to pay it forward by giving away some of the books that have been collecting dust on my shelves! You can find the winners of each book below, and I'll be sending out an email later this morning.

• The Mephisto Covenant by Trinity Faegen: Gabe M!
• Everneath by Brodi Ashton: Michelle B!
• Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook: Marissa!
• Dead to You by Lisa McMann: Stephanie!
• Winter Town by Stephen Emond: Jessica Secret!
• Facing Demons by Ashley Saunders: YABookBridges!
• Enclave by Ann Aguirre: booknerd!
• Happy Birthday to Me by Brian Rowe: Carina Olsen!
• Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs: Celeste M!
• The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen: Zabet Reading!
• The Princess of Las Pulgas by C. Lee McKenzie: Helen M!
• Girl Meets Boy anthology edited by Kelly Milner Halls: Christi the Teen Librarian!

Congrats, everyone!