Paper Towns

Green, John. 2008. Paper Towns. October release.

Prologue opening paragraph: The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle. Like, I will probably never be struck by lightning, or win a Nobel Prize, or become the dictator of a small nation in the Pacific Islands, or contract terminal ear cancer, or spontaneously combust. But if you consider all the unlikely things together, at least one of them will probably happen to each of us. I could have seen it rain frogs. I could have stepped foot on Mars. I could have been eaten by a whale. I could have married the queen of England or survived months at sea. But my miracle was different. My miracle was this: out of all the houses in all the subdivisions in all of Florida, I ended up living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman.

First sentence: The longest day of my life began tardily.

My favorite quote: I spent the next three hours in classrooms, trying not to look at the clocks above various blackboards, and then looking at the clocks, and then being amazed that only a few minutes had passed since I last looked at the clock. I'd had nearly four years of experience looking at these clocks, but their sluggishness never ceased to surprise. If I am ever told that I have one day to live, I will head straight for the hallowed halls of Winter Park High School, where a day has been known to last a thousand years. (18)

Quentin Jacobsen, our narrator, has been trying to puzzle out the mystery that is Margo for years now. And as their senior year comes to a close, the mystery is only deepening as far as he's concerned. It all starts with a late night visit. Margo appears at his bedroom window asking Quentin to join her in some mischievous revenge--she needs his car, or rather she needs his mom's car. And Quentin, or Q as she calls him, would do anything and everything for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend some quality time with the girl of his dreams.

What happens that night and in the following weeks will shape Quentin in ways he never would--never could have--expected.

John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the Printz award in 2006. Green's second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, earned a Printz honor. And, of course, along the way he's picked up an enormous number of fans both through his books and his vlogging with the Brotherhood 2.0. (And though that's over and done with, more videos and blogging can be seen on the Nerdfighters Ning site.

Note: I'm reviewing an ARC, so keep that in mind when I'm pulling a few quotes out. They may or may not be the same as what makes it into the finished book that will be released in October.

Now for some Weekly Geeks Q&A fun:

Bart's Bookshelf asks, "I've not read any John Green, so have you a favourite quote/line from Paper Towns that best sums up the relationship of the main protagonists?"

I've already quoted a bit of this one. But here are two more that will give you a feel for the book:

"Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one." (8)

"I smiled. She smiled. I believed the smile. We walked to the stairs and then ran down them. At the bottom of each flight, I jumped off the bottom step and clicked my heels to make her laugh, and she laughed. I thought I was cheering her up. I thought she was cheerable. I thought maybe if I could be confident, something might happen between us. I was wrong." (58)

Jennie asks, "Is Paper Towns everything that we've now come to expect from John Green? Because I'm DYING to read this one!!! Will I just be disappointed, so is my internal hype well-deserved?"

Yes. If you've followed his vlogging and come to love his personality just as much as his fiction, then you won't be disappointed. Green's personality shines through on this one. I haven't read An Abundance of Katherines yet, but this one is just as good as Looking for Alaska.

M. Molly says, "John Green said that Paper Towns was written as a response to Looking for Alaska. Do you see signs of this in PT? Also, does PT break out of JG's "Nerdy boy meets awesome girl who changes his life" equation (not that I mind it...)?"

Yes and no. In some ways the two books are similar. Two guys on the fringe of 'the-in-crowd' find a few wacky friends, two unforgettable girls to dream about and idolize, and thus "come of age". Both have humor and sarcasm in just the right amount. Both have their serious and meaningful layers. Where they differ, in my opinion, is in the mixing. Looking for Alaska is very bittersweet, very contemplative. And Paper Towns has this too. But it's not as bittersweet. It's a bit wackier than Looking for Alaska. Miles and Quentin are not mirror images or anything. Quentin has enough of a personality--as does his friends and dream-girl--to make this one unique. It is not Looking for Alaska part two. But if you boiled it down to the basics, it would have many of the same ingredients, just in different amounts.

Suey says, "I 2nd everything everyone's said about Paper Towns. Dying to know if it's like his others. Better maybe even?"

It's good. It's very good. I won't say I think it's the best, best, best book ever written. But it's definitely one of the better books I've read of YA published in 2008. It would make my top ten list--so far at least--for YA novels published this year. I can't say it's better necessarily. But I can say it met my expectations. I expected really good work, and it delivered. I was surprised by Looking for Alaska. I read it before it was published. It was his first book. I didn't know quite what to expect. And it just blew me away, I thought it was one of the BEST books of the year. So it's hard to match my enthusiasm and passion since with this one I went into with different expectations.

Melissa asks, "Trying to say something different about Paper Towns: how does it compare to his other two? Better? Worse? Different? Do you think that his style works well for the story? (I don't even know the story!)"

I think Green is great at coming-of-age stories about awkward guys who come into their own and get comfortable with who they are and what they want. And he's great at depicting the highs and lows of teen life. The best and worst and most embarrassing. He definitely is a great storyteller.

I haven't read An Abundance of Katherines, but I thought this one was just as good as his first one, Looking for Alaska.

Joy Renee asks, "I'm interested in the technique and art of storytelling itself so anything along that line would interest me. My questions are for any or all of the fiction titles in your list:

How was Point-of-View handled? Was there a single POV character or did it alternate among two or more. Was it always clear whose eyes and mind were filtering?

It was written in first person. And I think this was an effective way to tell a very personal story.

How does the title relate to the story? Was it fitting?" It was very fitting. I can't really go into it all here because it would contain spoilers. I think if you *know* ahead of time what the title is all about, then you might approach the book differently. It's best just to go with it and learn as the character grows.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Living Dead Girl

Scott, Elizabeth. 2008. Living Dead Girl.

Just when you thought Elizabeth Scott was getting to be predictable...along comes LIVING DEAD GIRL. To clarify, I love, love, love Elizabeth Scott. I have happily read and gushed about her first three books: Bloom, Perfect You, and Stealing Heaven.

If I had just a handful of words to describe Living Dead Girl, they'd be: powerful, haunting, and unputdownable.

It is the story of a girl caught in a nightmare. "Alice." A girl who at the age of ten was reborn.

Get up.
Those were the first words I ever heard.
Open my eyes, see a girl, black and blue all over, dried blood along her thighs. Red brown stains smeared across the hairless juncture between.
"Get up and take a bath, Alice," the man in the blue shirt said, and Alice did.
I did.
That's how I was born. Naked, hairless, covered in blood like all babies.
Named, bathed, and then taken out into the world. (20)

Kidnapped by a pedophile during a class field trip, Alice has endured the unthinkable for five years. Now she's fifteen, five foot seven, and a hundred pounds. Her time is running out, she knows this, she wasn't the first Alice. But it is in how she lives--her world, her thoughts, her decisions--that will haunt you most of all. Suspenseful, dark, and very chilling. Definitely not for everyone. But if you can go to the dark side, if you can walk in her shoes for a bit, it is really something.

Scott's writing is incredible. If I were in charge of handing out awards, one would be heading her way. Her book is amazingly haunting. It just resonates with feeling, emotion. The mood might be dark. The ending bittersweet, but oh-what-a-book.

In previous posts, I've compared Elizabeth Scott to Sarah Dessen. She may not realize it, but that is high praise, very high praise coming from me. Some people may think that Stephenie Meyer is the "perfect" writer. But for me, Sarah Dessen, has always provided the most satisfying of reads. But with her fourth novel, Living Dead Girl, new comparisons must be made. Alice Sebold. Nancy Werlin. Gail Giles. Laura Wiess.

I read an ARC of this. It isn't due to be published until September, I believe. As I'm quoting from this ARC, be aware that there could be changes between this and the final published version.

http://www.elizabethwrites.com/
Another review: Reader Rabbit,

If you've read this one, please let me know and I'll add your link to the list.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

42 Miles

Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. 2008. 42 Miles.

What the jacket says: "Linked free verse poems combine with scrapbook-style illustrations to create the vivid portrait of a girl who is trying to find herself amid the pieces of her life."

Loved this one. Just loved it. JoEllen (Ellen to her city friends; Joey to her country friends) divides her time between her two parents. Since her parents' divorce, she spends part of her week in the city with her mom, and the rest of the week (or should I say the weekends) with her dad in the country. Living a separated life isn't easy. Her dad and mom not to mention her city friends and country friends all see her differently. Which identity is her real identity? Who is she really when she's not trying to be all things to all people?

Many young adult novels focus on identity. Teens and preteens coming of age, coming to term with who they are and what they want. 42 Miles is a great example of this. Here we have an intelligent young girl beginning to transition into young adulthood. Just beginning to define who she is and what she wants. There's always a fine line between trying to be who your parents what you to be and being true to yourself. JoEllen is just beginning to discover this. Trying to define what is important to her.

Tomorrow, for Poetry Friday, I'll be sharing one poem from 42 Miles.

Other reviews: Readingjunky's Reading Roost, Patchwork of Books,

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Gem X

Singer, Nicky. 2008. Gem X.

What kind of book is Gem X? According to the jacket, it is a "gripping futuristic thriller" about the consequences of genetic engineering. Gem X is the story of three teens primarily. Maxo Strang is an Enhanced human. He's got the wealth, the privilege, physically and materially he has everything going for him. Gala and Stretch are brother and sister. Both dreggies. Naturals. Their genes are still "clean." And their clean genes are really the only things they have going for them. For it is these genes which they can sale to the Enhanced scientists for money. The Dreggies--all of them--are poverty stricken, prone to disease, lacking in proper food and water and medical care. Their lives are dismal--at least on the surface. They live in broken down buildings and often lack water and electricity.

Why do the Enhanced need 'clean genes.' Well, their bodies and minds sometimes develop flaws. Clean genes are needed to fix certain problems. These scientists are far from perfect though they like to play god with the human body. Natural "meshing" is not allowed. Touching is not allowed. Everything is done 'virtually' when it comes to dating. And genetic matches must be approved by others (not sure if it's just the parents who get a vote or if the government/scientists must approve as well.) But the whole process is very cold and distant compared to what it should be.

Our story begins when Maxo discovers that he has a crack on his face. This combined with the revelation that all Gem X'ers are developing cracks (or wrinkles) on their faces. Something is wrong--desperately and dangerously wrong!

These stories connect--as you can imagine--and I suppose you could easily classify it as a thriller. It's always moving.

The premise of this one was interesting. I can't deny that. But at the same time, it failed, in a way, to work for me. While hypothetically interesting, I just didn't seem to connect with the characters. I didn't feel their angst, their pain, their confusion. Part of this could have been intentional. The Enhanced humans are supposedly free from being "bogged down" by emotional drama and whatnot. They're very cold and calculating. Very me-me-me oriented. Maxo's parents, especially his mother, is very cold, frigid, and just a horrible person. She has no heart and no depth. Maxo's father is slightly more human. He does seem to care, but for the most part he has been too blinded to really realize how much he is lacking in the fatherhood department. There are other human characters, human adult characters, that just seem odd and out of place in this text. I was never quite sure what to make of them.

Singer has created a world that is very chaotic. A world that is complex. A world that has its own organization, its own vocabulary, its own status quo. The readers never really get an orientation to its history, its politics, its society, its science. And because of that it is a world that could be a bit too confusing to readers. I can't and won't speak for everyone. But I know there were elements that confused me.

Other reviews: Roselle, Sellers Library Teens,

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Nonfiction Monday: King George What Was His Problem

Sheinkin, Steve. 2008. King George What Was His Problem: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution.

Enjoyable. That is what King George What Was His Problem is. Enjoyable. Fun. Interesting. Informative. Entertaining. Everything a textbook isn't in most cases. The tone of this one is conversational. (Almost reminiscent of Kathleen Krull in my opinion.)

Product description from the publisher's site:

KING GEORGE NEVER DID UNDERSTAND AMERICANS

“Entire books have been written about the causes of the American Revolution. This isn’t one of them.” What it is, instead, is utterly interesting, antedotes (John Hancock fixates on salmon), from the inside out (at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, hundreds of soldiers plunged into battle “naked as they were born”) close-up narrative filled with little-known details, lots of quotes that capture the spirit and voices of the principals (“If need be, I will raise one thousand men, subsist them at my own expense, and march myself at their head for the relief of Boston” -- George Washington), and action, It’s the story of the birth of our nation, complete with soldiers, spies, salmon sandwiches, and real facts you can’t help but want to tell to everyone you know.

Full of I-didn't-know-that facts, this nonfiction book proved almost unputdownable. It held my interest throughout and was quite simply an enjoyable read. Much more entertaining than I was expecting. But just because it's entertaining doesn't mean the research was lazy. It is well-researched and the bibliography (and source notes) are thorough.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

A La Carte

Davis, Tanita. 2008. A La Carte.

An empty plate hits the stainless steel deck in the kitchen of La Salle Rouge with a clatter.

Rarely do I so completely agree with a jacket flap. But in this case, it is right on.

Seventeen-year-old Lainey dreams of becoming a world famous chef one day and maybe even having her own cooking show. (Do you know how many African American female chefs there aren't? And how many vegetarian chefs have their own shows? The field is wide open for stardom.) But when her best friend--and secret crush--suddenly leaves town, Lainey finds herself alone in the kitchen. With a little help from Saint Julia (Child, of course), Lainey seeks solace in her cooking as she comes to terms with the past and begins a new recipe for the future. Peppered with recipes from Lainey's notebooks, this delicious debut novel finishes the same way one feels after a good meal--satiated content, and hopeful.

A La Carte does not overwhelm you with its greatness. Perhaps overwhelm isn't the right word, what I mean is that it is subtle and gentle. It's not overpowering. (It's the kind of 'greatness' that sneaks up on you and takes you by surprise.) Most YA novels in one way or another deal with the 'issue' or 'theme' of identity. And A La Carte is no different. It is without a doubt a coming of age story. Lainey--as a person--grows, changes, evolves, learns, awakens through the course of the novel. The Lainey we meet on page 1 is not the Lainey we say goodbye to on page 280. Some things stay the same, of course, but quite a few things change. One is the way Lainey sees herself, knows herself, respects herself.

But A La Carte also offers an in-depth look at family life. Particularly the relationship between Lainey and her mom. It is so well done. So dimensional. I hope that makes sense. In other words, both Lainey and her mom, Vivianne, are fully developed. And their relationship has depth and life.

And then there's the friendship angle. The popularity angle. Lainey is on the fringes, the outskirts of high school society. She's more of a loner. And content to be that way. Sure she wishes that some of her former friends hadn't ditched her for the cool crowd. But she's happy staying in the kitchen. Or so she thinks most of the time. This book examines what it means to be a friend, to have a friend. What does healthy friendship look like? What doesn't it look like?

In a way A La Carte says a great deal about longing. I don't want to say too much more about that because I don't want to spoil this one for anyone.

A La Carte is good. It resonates in meaning-of-life internal drama. There's a richness to it that I can't quite explain. I suppose I mean it has depth and layers.

Saint Julia always said that in cooking, there are very few mistakes that can't be corrected. You can add a pinch of salt and some chopped herbs to the butter if you forgot to put salt in your bread. If your souffle falls, you can serve it with a sauce over it, and it'll look just fine. Gummy mashed potatoes can be resurrected as potato pancakes. But once you add too much pepper to something--it's over. You can't make something less spicy than it is. (179)

Definitely recommended. (Though I must admit the ending seemed a bit too happy to be realistic. Still, overall, I enjoyed it and found it a satisfying read. In fact, it made me a bit hungry!)

Other reviews: Cheryl Rainfield, Little Willow,

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

No Cream Puffs

Day, Karen. 2008. No Cream Puffs.

This isn't what we usually do. If we have time after lunch, we shoot baskets with the boys in the gym. Today we're lined up in front of the mirror in the girls' bathroom. I stand to the side and twist my mood ring around and around my finger. My mess of curly blond hair is a disaster compared to the new feathered style everyone else has. "This is plushy pink." Casey Cunningham pulls a tube of lip gloss out of her purse and opens it. The sweet smell of cotton candy fills the bathroom. She rolls it onto her lips. "It's new."
She rolls it onto Gina's lips and then reaches for Sara, who stands next to me, holding her new purse with both hands. I'm next.
Casey snaps the cap on the lip gloss and puts it back in her purse. I feel the tops of my ears burn; she left me out on purpose. I glance at Sara, but she won't look at me.
"You smell like a circus," I blurt. Their lips sparkle under the lights. Could my lips look like that too?
"I'm sorry, Madison." Casey looks at me, eyes wide. "I didn't think baseball players wore lip gloss." (1-2)

Set in the summer of 1980, No Cream Puffs is the story of Madison Mitchell, a twelve-year-old baseball player who hates to be called a tom boy. So what if she likes to play sports? Does that make her a boy not a girl? NO. She's a girl alright. Her developing breasts (which she tries to disguise whenever she plays ball) and a crush on a teammate prove that.

No Cream Puffs is a sports story. No doubt about it. There's baseball games, baseball practice, and plenty of baseball talk. But it is more than that. Much more. It's the story of a girl who feels uncomfortable with herself, her body, her life. A girl who doesn't feel comfortable with her identity. She doesn't want to be solely defined as "the girl" (the only girl) who plays in a baseball league of boys. But as the girl she does get attention at all the games especially by the media who want to turn her into something she's not. It's a story about family. A story about friendship. A story about growing up. Here we see the first glimpses of a young girl changing into a young woman. Her first crushes. This age is often (or should I say always) awkward and painful. Madison's experiences are authentically so. I loved Madison's voice. And I loved her story.

I really loved this book. Karen Day knows how to do real, to do authentic. Everything just feels right about this one.

http://www.klday.com/index.html
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Planet Pregnancy

High, Linda Oatman. 2008. Planet Pregnancy. 197 pages. October 2008.

Planet Pregnancy is a novel in free verse. Sahara, our narrator, is sixteen going on seventeen. And, as you can guess from the title and cover, her whole world is about to change. Here is how we meet Sahara:

It's September tenth and
I'm holding my breath
because life
and death
and everything
in-between
depends
on a stick
dipped
for less than
ten seconds
in a dish
of pee.

A page or two further...

My name's Sahara,
like the desert.
Unlike the Badlands,
though,
I'm not barren.

Sahara has quite a predicament on her hands no doubt about it. Scared to tell her mother, she keeps her pregnancy a secret from practically everyone. She tells only her closest friend, and even then, she waits until the second trimester.

I remember seeing girls like Sahara on various talk shows. I saw a Dr. Phil episode last week in fact about girls keeping their pregnancies secret, about moms that are so clueless when it comes to knowing, to observing, to seeing what is right in front of them. So there's not a doubt in my mind that this is a realistic portrayal.

As for the poetry itself, it's not perfect. I'm on the fence about it actually. There are places where it's got a certain rhythm, where it seems to work. But there are other places, many places, where it rhymes too much. The rhymes just don't work for me. They sound authentically amateurish. Like they could be how a sixteen-or-seventeen year old might choose to document their life. For me the rhymes took me out of the story. Were a distraction.

For example,

My stomach
is in a curl.
I'm going to
hurl.
"I have
something
to tell you,"
I stammer.
My heart
is a hammer. (129)

Or

She's going
to freak.
I feel weak.
I think I'm
going to barf.
Mom's wearing
a green scarf. (128)

Or

School is so
not cool.
The teachers
are geeks,
and the weeks
drag like rags
through mud.
School is
crud.
At this time
next year,
I'll still be here,
waiting to graduate
in gown and cap
into the Real World
of crap. (99)

However, maybe the rhyming won't annoy other readers. Maybe it's just a personal thing. I just wish it was more natural. No one really and truly rhymes naturally that frequently. People just don't talk like that. Don't think like that.

To end on a more positive note. I think the poems do convey the emotions well. The confusion. The drama. The love. The hate. The uncertainty. The flip-flopping of emotions, of feelings, of hormones. I think it does do a good job of portraying the changes the mind and body go through as it changes through the months of pregnancy.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Hanging Woods

Sanders, Scott Loring. 2008. The Hanging Woods.

What can I say about this one? Really? Truly? It's dark. It's depressing. It's truly dreadful--dreadful in content, not style. It's disturbing, very disturbing. A difficult read, a discomforting read. Warped. Twisted. And oh-so-wrong.

First sentence: "In 1975, when I was thirteen, I killed a fox. It happened a few weeks after I'd snuck into my mother's room and read her diary. That diary told me a lot of things that I didn't want to know. Or maybe I did want to know them. I can't say for sure."

The good news is that you should be able to tell fairly early on whether or not The Hanging Woods is for you. In the first chapter alone we've got the slaughtering of a fox and a chicken. (And the two aren't connected. The fox wasn't after the chicken.) In the second chapter, we see many signs of unhealthy relationships. Relationships between friends. Relationships between families. And we see our first human death. Very bizarre. Not exactly murder. Not exactly calculated. But strange indeed. And in the third chapter, we learn that our narrator, Walter, committed arson. He burned a house down. So right from the start you know this is going to be one dark-and-weird book. It's not for everyone. The language. The violence. The subject matter. It just paints a very dark and unpleasant portrait of humanity. Not that I'm denying that humans can be ugly and cruel and tortured and demented and perverted and whatnot. But dismal, dismal, very dismal.

The Hanging Woods is about the breakdown of friends, of family, of the mind itself.

Personally, I don't like dark and edgy all that much. I prefer my narrators a bit more sane. HOWEVER I know that some readers will appreciate this one. It is well written. If it had been poorly written, I wouldn't have found the strength to keep reading.

Edited to add: I slept on this one. Given it some more thought. And I wanted to add that it was really well done. When characters are so thoroughly written, so powerfully drawn that you have to keep reading even if you personally hate where they are going...then that says something about the writing. So for skills in writing, in characterization this one gets my approval.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Revisiting The Dead and The Gone

Yesterday, I finished listening to the audio book of the dead and the gone. And it was good. How could it not be good. Though with audio books, the narrator is an essential component of "liking" or "not liking" a particular production, it remains at heart Pfeffer's stories, words, characters. And they're strong enough to carry any narration. Not that Robertson Dean needs much help. But still. I'm just saying it would be hard to completely ruin the book since it's so compelling and intense on its own.

Robertson Dean. What can I say. His voice is nice, strong, clear, deep, and low. Did I buy him as a 17 year old boy or as a 12 year old girl? Or as a girl of any age for that matter? No. Of course not. But the rare occasions when dialogue is part of the action, when Julie or Briana's voices must be heard--his voices for the two sisters are adequate. (Probably no more odd than when the narrator of Life As We Knew It had to do the voices for Miranda's two brothers Matt and Jonny.)

Scenes. Listening to the audio book made certain scenes even stronger, more vivid. The emotional scenes packed more of a punch. I think this is because in an audio book you can't speed up. You can't rush through a text. You can't get caught up in the drama of racing through to the end. You're stuck in the moment. And if the moment is painful, emotional, and traumatic--if you've read it you probably can guess which scenes I'm talking about--then it's even more so, the situation is magnified. This can be good or bad. Good in that the intensity, the drama, feels immediate. You can't help but feel right along with the characters. Bad in that it can haunt you even more than the text itself.

So if you've got access to the dead and the gone at your library, you should definitely consider giving this one a listen.

I just realized that I've *assumed* you were familiar with the dead and the gone and life as we knew it. You can read my full review here. But here's a bit to ground you.

the dead and the gone is the much-anticipated follow up novel to Life As We Knew It. Though the characters and setting are different--New York not Pennsylvania--the terror and uncertainty of future days is the same. Our narrator is Alex Morales, an older teen (perhaps 17?), whose world is about to be turned upside down. While there was set up in Life As We Knew It, the dead and the gone begins with the BIG event. Wednesday, May 18... At the moment when life as he had known it changed forever, Alex Morales was behind the counter at Joey's pizza, slicing a spinach pesto pie into eight roughly equal pieces. (1). Of course, at that moment, Alex doesn't know that. He's just your average teen. His mom was a nurse called into work that evening unexpectedly. His dad was out of the country attending the funeral of Alex's grandmother. His older brother, Carlos, is away from home and in the Marines. Thus when the calamity happens, it is on Alex and Alex alone to protect his family--his two younger sisters--and begin the fight for their ultimate survival.

Life As We Knew It is a novel that I first reviewed in November of 2006. In September of 2007, I reviewed the audio book . My interview with Susan Beth Pfeffer can be found here.

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Geek Magnet

Scott, Kieran. 2008. Geek Magnet.

Okay, so I was dizzy with power. Can you blame me? It was the first day of rehearsals for the spring musical, Grease, at Washington High and I, KJ Miller, was the stage manager. The woman in charge. The first junior ever to be granted this most prestigious position.

KJ Miller. How to describe KJ? Well, there's the obvious. She's a geek magnet. She draws some geeky undesirables close to her. Fred. Glenn. Andy. Perhaps because of all the buzzing geeks near her, KJ is not quite as popular as she'd like to be. She's not in the outer rings of the social strata, but she's far from being "in" with the in crowd of beautiful people. With great power comes great responsibility. KJ now has some power at least when it comes to the drama folks. And this new-found power has brought someone new to KJ's life: Tama, Tama Gold. And Tama has something KJ wants more than anything: power and sway over KJ's crush, Cameron. KJ loves Cameron. And Tama, well, Tama sees that as her "in." As the "star" of the show, Tama, wants--no, needs--KJ to be on her side.

Tama easily agrees to setting KJ and Cameron up. Knowing that by 'befriending' KJ, the power to rule the show, rule the production, would be within her reach. After all, boys can be distracting.

The first rule Tama sets for her new best friend is that KJ has to stop being nice to the geeks, to the nobodys. She had to start being mean, being firm, being direct. KJ needed to cut free and clean from those holding her back. Who would want to date her if all her friends were dorks and geeks?

There is one person, however, that KJ still listens to. Robbie. The male lead of the play. Robbie. A guy she sees as being so wonderfully himself. He didn't hang out with the cool people, the beautiful people. But that was his choice. And that choice makes all the difference to KJ. She sees him as anything but a geek. Robbie wants Tama. KJ agrees. This requires much plotting together. This cozy together time that is oh-so-predictable.

If Geek Magnet has a flaw it is that it is ultra-predictable. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm sure some folks will find it enjoyable and satisfying. To me, as an adult, I found KJ a bit too self-absorbed. KJ wasn't exactly shallow. Far from it in some areas. KJ's life isn't easy. She has an alcoholic father, a mother in denial, and a younger brother that is absent-though-present. (It's weird how many scenes this brother is in, yet he never made an impression.) While KJ's relationship hate-and-angst filled relationship with her father takes up some space, the rest of her family just fades into the backdrop.

The romance. Well. I thought it lacked a bit. I thought Robbie and KJ definitely had some chemistry. But, predictably so, they were almost the last ones to know it. And the resolution, the closing scenes where they're drawn together...well, they technically get the job done, but I was hoping for a bit more fireworks.

Where Geek Magnets might pick up some fans is in the drama department. For readers who have a love for drama, for theatre, for musicals, for Grease in particular...I think this one might work better. It does spend a good majority of time behind-the-scenes pulling together a musical production. Actors. Directors. Props. Costumes. Dress rehearsals.

I think other readers would probably like this one better than I did.

Read the first chapter here.
Other reviews: Flamingnet, RomanticTimes, ReaderViews,

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Richest Doll in the World

Robertus, Polly M. 2008. The Richest Doll in the World.

The flap on this one called it an "exciting, spooky tale that will appeal to anyone who has ever loved a doll." I'm not so sure. The good news? It's short. And the print is large. The bad news? I didn't like many (if any) of the characters.

This is a holiday-based mystery for the 8 to 10 crowd. Emily is an orphan living with her grandmother, Grandma Rose. When the story opens, w