Scars (YA)

Scars. Cheryl Rainfield. 2010. WestSide Books. 250 pages.

"Someone is following me." I gulp air, trying to breathe.

Kendra has had a hard life. She's in therapy now. And she's trying her best to recover her memories, recover her life. But when the novel opens, she can't remember her abuser. She remembers the abuse--the sexual abuse. But something is keeping her from seeing the face of her abuser. The face of the man who had tormented her for over a decade.

Kendra is convinced that this man is not finished with her yet. She feels that she is being followed, being stalked. That this man is leaving her messages, leaving her threats. Reminding her that if she tells, she'll die.

So yes, Kendra has had a hard life. And her home life is challenging to say the least. Her relationship with her parents is tense. She doesn't get along with either her mom or her dad. Kendra is angry that her mom has failed to support her in many ways. That her mom failed to listen to her as a child the few times Kendra tried to let her mom know she was being hurt. Her mom also has a hard time accepting that her daughter is a lesbian.

One way she copes is by cutting. Cutting herself numbs her emotionally. Whenever she feels overwhelmed, whenever the pain becomes too much, Kendra resorts to hurting herself. Another way she copes is with her art.

While Scars is a fast-paced novel dealing with hard issues, it's also a love story. Kendra has fallen in love Meghan, and Meghan has fallen in love with her. With Meghan she is able to be herself, to talk and have someone really listen, really understand.

Scars is an emotional, compelling novel. Kendra's story is haunting and the threats she faces are all too real. Scars is a book that is hard to put down.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Counterfeit Son (YA)

Alphin, Elaine Marie. 2000. Counterfeit Son. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 180 pages.

He chose the Lacey family at first because of the sailboats.

This was completely an impulsive read. There was no urgency in getting to it. It's not a new book. (Though I believe it is soon to be reprinted soon in paperback by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. January 2010, according to B&N.) But the moment I picked it up, the moment I read the first page, I just had to keep reading this one. It was so very readable, so very compelling. Which--just so you know--was so unexpected, because this is not a book in my comfort zone, this genre is not one I usually read. At all. And yet for some reason, it grabbed my attention from the start.

Long story short, I was surprised by this one. And I definitely recommend it! It is the 2001 winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Young Adult Mystery.

What is it about? It's about a son who hates his father. With good reason. Cameron, our narrator, is a young boy--fourteen, I think--who has been through so much. His father, a man he calls Pop, is a serial killer and child abuser. But there is light, there is hope. Now that his father is dead--killed in a police raid--Cameron sees his chance. He wants a new life, a real life. By claiming to be someone he's not, by pretending to be one of the victims, Neil Lacey. But will this plan work? Or will his past catch up with him?

You can read an excerpt here.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Flowers in the Attic (YA/Adult)

Andrews, V.C. 1979. Flowers in the Attic. 389 pages.

It is so appropriate to color hope yellow, like the sun we seldom saw.

I don't know what to say about this one. I really don't. I'll start with why I picked it up...it's all Leila's fault. It's her review, believe it or not, that made me pick this one up. Warning: if you read her review, there will be no surprises left. Is that a good thing? a bad thing? That's something you'll have to decide. You should also know that it is the best *bad review* of a book ever. So be prepared to laugh.

Did I like it? I'm embarrassed to say I read it all in one sitting. I can't say that I enjoyed it though. There were too many things about it that annoyed me. The use of italics. The descriptions. The dialogue. The characterization. The creepiness of it all.

What is it about? For those that don't know, it is about four children--Chris, Cathy, Cory, and Carrie--who spend three to four years (at least) locked up in a bedroom together (but at least they have access to the attic, right?) while their mother tries to ingratiate herself back into her daddy's good graces. Why is her father so disgruntled? Because his daughter became involved with--ran off and married in fact--his half-brother (which would be her half-uncle). So while they may all live in the same mansion, the children are being "hidden" from their grandfather. They're not hidden from their grandmother, however, a woman that makes the wicked witch of the west look like nanny material.

Why did I choose this cover? After all, there were plenty I could have chosen to highlight...well, it is so ridiculously bad...so very odd and creepy. But it is not the cover from the copy I read. I read the newish sun-dazzled one that shows Chris and Cathy ogling each other.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Vast Fields of Ordinary (YA)

Burd, Nick. 2009. The Vast Fields of Ordinary. Penguin. (Dial). 309 pages.

I spent a good part of my senior prom drawing DH +PS in a giant heart in the last stall of the Cedarville High boys' bathroom. It covered the entire wall and took two red markers and almost an hour to complete.

Dade Hamilton's prom isn't going all that well. You see, his boyfriend, Pablo Soto, is there with his girlfriend. Yes, Pablo, Dade's lover, has a serious girlfriend. A bit ironic, in a way, that Pablo the one who's so firmly in the closet, was the aggressor in the relationship, the initiator of the affair. What is clear to the reader--though not necessarily to Dade--is that this "relationship" is only about the sex (and power), and it's more than a little unhealthy. Pablo is seriously bad news. Fortunately, a better guy is just around the corner for Dade. The summer after graduation he meets Alex Kincaid. And in this first 'real' relationship, Dade begins to better understand what love is all about. But his past--Dade's past--keeps intruding into the present. Pablo is a bitter ex. A serious manipulator. And Dade isn't finding him so easy to ignore. Even if he can avoid falling back into Pablo's bed, he can't so easily stop thinking about him.

What did I like about this one? I liked the healthier choice, Alex.

What didn't I like about this one? Pablo. There's something dark and twisted about Pablo and his relationship with Dade. And Dade has problems recognizing this clearly. And I'm not sure how I feel about it that it takes Dade meeting Alex and realizing that there are other guys out there to love that makes him realize that he's worth more than that. That it takes an Alex for Dade to realize that Pablo is wrong for him. If he'd never met Alex, would he have stuck with Pablo? If Alex had been straight, if he'd not been interested in Dade, would Dade still be taking abuse from Pablo?

I think Dade has other issues as well. He's not a particularly nice guy. He's a bit selfish and short-sighted. A bit me-me-me. He's not so considerate of others. He doesn't like being picked on, but he likes to pick on others. He wants people to treat him with respect and dignity, but he's not above using and abusing others. I didn't like the way Dade treated others. There were places he was meaner that I wanted him to be. Is this authentic? Yes and no. Dade's being selfish and inconsiderate doesn't make him unique, it just makes him human. Okay, it makes him a bit immature, and you keep hoping he'll grow out of it and realize it. But no one's perfect.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Identical

Hopkins, Ellen. 2008. Identical.

If you're familiar with Ellen Hopkins' other novels (verse novels)--Crank, Burned, Impulse, and Glass--then you know what to expect from her newest novel, Identical. For those that aren't familiar, you may find yourself in a state of shock at the issues Hopkins' touches on in her novel: alcohol, drugs, cutting, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts (and attempts), and sex. And of course some may squirm at the language.

No doubt about it, her novels won't suit everyone's tastes. Yet her novels do have fans. And there's a reason--her novels are powerful, very very potent. Raw. Emotional. Very gritty. Very in-your-face. There's always a depth and complexity to the characters that make them compelling. (Even if you don't happen to *like* the characters. You can't deny that they're humanly drawn.)

Identical is a shocking book in many ways. It deals with secrets, lies, brokenness, betrayal. It has more than angst, it has burning and haunting pain on almost every single page. It focuses on a dysfunctional, abusive family with much to hide--the Gardellas. A father who's a district court judge. A mother who's running for Congress. Our narrators are two teen girls Kaeleigh and Raeanne. These two angry-and-bitter narrators share a common enemy: their father and mother.

I hesitate to say much more because really in this instance, the less you know going in...the better the book will read.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews