Becoming a Queen

 

Becoming a Queen

by Dan Clay

 

Mark has always been sure of two things: he is gay and his older brother loves him no matter what.

What Mark isn't sure of is how he will feel wearing a dress. He feels like he will love it with all of his heart but he's not sure that anyone else will. 

Luckily, Mark's brother supports him 1000% with the encouragement to, "Be yourself! Your full sequin-y self.”

Just as Mark is starting to find his footing and figure out who he may be, tragedy strikes and he must start to find himself all over again.

Final thoughts: Poignant, sad, sometimes depressing, and sometimes frenetic, this book has a real 'voice' and is a solid story. Some of the moments were a little odd and others just didn't always read well, but the overall story is well done. This book can be very raw and real and there should be some trigger warnings somewhere, but it's worth the read.

Rating: 4/5

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Lock the Doors

Lock the Doors

by Vincent Ralph

When Tom, his mother, his new stepfather, and his new stepsister move into their new home, he's the only one who notices or cares that there are tiny little holes on the doors to his and his stepsister's rooms. Confused about why they are there and certain it means something, Tom goes in search of answers to the mystery.

Not long after moving in, a new girl starts at his high school and he realizes that she and her family were the former owners of his house and that they just moved a few houses down the block. Their new home is bigger but they've also added walks, metal spikes, and a security gate. 

Are they keeping people out or in?

With Tom's history and his mother's dangerous ex-boyfriends haunting his thoughts, Tom is determined to make sure no one else should suffer like he has in the past.

What he doesn't realize is that solving this mystery could put more than just himself in danger.

Final thoughts: This is a mild psychological thriller that is more realistic than scary. This is a very slow burn that takes a while to get to the point. There are some logistical errors here and there (or I just missed the explanations for them). The primary narrator is Tom but about 20% of the novel is told from Amy's (the new student) point of view to fill in some blanks. If you like "safe" mysteries/thrillers that don't really cause too much stress, this may be a good pick.

Rating: 3/5

Shout

Shout

by Laurie Halse Anderson

The author of Speak still has so much more to say.
But she won't whisper these words
These words she will Shout!

She will let out all that has been fighting her inside
and outside
Everywhere
and nowhere
It is time to let that voice out
It is time to tell her truth
It is time for her words to be read
and heard
and felt
and taken in
and made a part of
and lived
and loved
and absorbed

By every person who has felt anything
Ever


Final thoughts: This is the first time I have ever wanted to write on the pages of a book. I wanted to note and comment and mark every passage. If I had a highlighter, I would have made this whole book yellow and pink and blue. I actually dog-eared a couple of pages for the first time since high school (oh so many years ago). This is a must-read. And page 243 is now my life-mantra.

Rating: 5/5

Eliza and Her Monsters

Eliza and Her Monsters

by Francesca Zappia

In this world of cell phones and online anonymity, parents find it harder and harder to understand their children. This is especially true for Eliza Mirk and her parents. 

Eliza is one of the most introverted people out there and yet she also has one of the biggest online followings in the world. At school, Eliza just tries to get through each day, never making eye contact and ignoring the world around her. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, the creator and author of Monstrous Sea, one of the biggest webcomics on the Internet. 

As LadyConstellation, Eliza is generous to her fans, regularly answers questions, and even joins in on the teen soap forums. She has a huge fan forum and merchandising operation run by the only two people outside of her family who know her real identity. 

But at home, Eliza's introverted behavior worries her parents and alienates her relatives. She doesn't speak often, rarely pulls her head out of her phone or sketchbook, and definitely does not go out with friends. Her parents have no idea how big Eliza is online and there's really no way to tell them so that they'll understand.

When Eliza meets Warren, the new kid at school, there's a profound shift in her life. He's highly introverted, as well, and he has his own online secrets but they are drawn together by Monstrous Sea and their mutual difficulties in dealing with the real world; they may be the only two people in the world who truly understand the other person.

Now Eliza needs to figure out how to meld the two worlds before they crash together on their own.

Final thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. I'm in that in-between generation that loves tech but I wasn't raised on it from infancy. I definitely like my social media and all the things that my cell phone and computer can do, but I don't live online. This shared some great insights that I hope to be able to use in the future. Eliza's webcomic is a little difficult for me to grasp with the little we see, but the illustrations pull the story together and get more solid over the course of the book, just as Eliza becomes more solid a character. As an introvert myself, Eliza's struggles are real to me and Zappia brings those issues to the page very well. Good read.

Rating: 4/5

The Program

The Program

by Suzanne Young

In the not-too-distant future, suicide breaks out among teens around the world. Teens are literally killing themselves left and right. 

In a panic to save the next generation, the government creates The Program. Each day, students fill out a survey to determine their mental state. Each day, handlers walk the schools and streets, looking for tell-tale signs of depression. Each day, parents and friends report people to The Program. And each day, those people are forcefully taken to be "cured" before they too submit to suicidal thoughts.

Sloane has every good reason to be sad but she's not allowed to show any of it. One tear and she'll be the next to go to The Program. People enter The Program as one person, but leave as someone completely blank. All of their memories are taken. All of their personalities are wiped. They are blank slates, no longer depressed but no longer themselves, either.

After Sloane's brother kills himself and her best friend is taken to The Program, Sloane knows that they are watching her. They are looking for a sign, a moment of weakness, anything that will justify taking her away. Sloane's only comfort and the only person she can trust is her boyfriend, James.

But when James succumbs to the thoughts, Sloane is truly alone and The Program is watching.

Final thoughts: Good dystopian novel with some interesting ideas. I've been seeing this on bookstore shelves for a while and kept thinking that I must have already purchased it and had it in my TBR pile because it's definitely up my alley. When I finally read it, I was not disappointed. It's realistic and dark with some chilling content and predictions of the future. Can suicide become contagious? Some of this also reminded me of Uglies mixed with a little Hunger Games and some 1984 for good measure. It was a good read but I'm not sure how much I want to read the sequels; this may be too dark a path for me.

Rating: 4/5

Dear Rachel Maddow

Dear Rachel Maddow

by Adrienne Kisner

Who needs Dear Diary or Dear Abby when you have Rachel Maddow?

Brynn Harper's life is not a bowl of cherries. She's a lesbian living a closeted life with her ultra-conservative mother and abusive stepfather. She struggles with basic schoolwork because the letters and words dance before her eyes. Her older brother died two years before from an accidental overdose. And everyone, or almost everyone, believes she'll die the same way even though she's never taken a single drug.

Brynn's school life is no better as she's been relegated to the "Applied" section in the blue room of the basement, just trying to get through her days until she turns eighteen and can finally leave all the negative behind.

When Brynn is asked to write to a celebrity hero for a school assignment, she picks Rachel Maddow, mostly because Brynn's mother would go nuts if she found out. When Rachel responds, it starts a whirlwind of movement in Brynn's life starting with school politics and ending with the beautiful new girl who comes to peer-tutor in the blue room.

Life is never easy and fighting is always hard but Brynn may just have everything she needs to get through it all if she can just see it right in front of her eyes.

Final thoughts: Solid realistic YA fiction. Brynn's stepdad is pretty evil and it's difficult to see why her mom stays with him but that's true for many dysfunctional families, so that all fits. It's so difficult to read stories like these especially when you know how true they are in this world. I love Brynn's voice. She's so real and raw and sometimes so very oblivious. The ending isn't a happily ever after, but it's real and true. I wish the dyslexia had been diagnosed and discussed rather than just implied, but it was still good to see that kind of realistic depiction of a learning disability.

Rating: 4/5

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and MacMillan Children's Publishing Group

Here

Here

by Denise Grover Swank

For the last six months, Julia has been hiding from her past.  She has been hiding from what she can't remember doing, but knows that she must have done it. She has been hiding from killing her best friend in a car accident. All she knows is that she woke up after the accident, wearing a strange bracelet that she doesn't remember ever getting, and suddenly having the ability to draw when she never could before.

So for the last six months, Julia has done everything she can to hide from what happened. Monica might be dead, but Julia feels like a ghost. She stays under the radar and tries to avoid the stares of her fellow classmates.

But that all changes when Evan Whittaker, popular jock and already-taken boyfriend, looks her way. When Evan suddenly takes notice of Julia, everything changes. He changes. And when he does, he only has eyes for Julia.

But Evan change has a very strange explanation, and Julia's about to figure it out.

Final thoughts: Ok. First, the prologue kind of messed me up during reading because I kept thinking about how strange and out of place it was while I was reading Julia's story. When the prologue and present day merged, it was intriguing, but got bogged down. Julia is completely unsympathetic as a character. Her mother and counselor make strange decisions for no good reasons. Evan's shift is explained and yet his obsession seems odd. Then entire second half of the book is unbelievable. SPOILERS: Ok, so there are multiple dimensions and a crossover point. I get that. What I don't get is the complete physical impossibility of there being so many of the same people in both dimensions, especially if there was a nuclear war in one that wiped out a HUGE percentage of the population. There is NO WAY that all of those children in the 60's survived the fallout, grew up to have marry the same people and have the same children at the same time and then those children grow up and marry to have the same children at the same time, creating DNA identicals in both dimensions for so many people. You can't say that all four teens would exist in both timelines at the same age with the same DNA from the same parents who are also the same age. Not possible. I can't even try to suspend disbelief on this one. Nope. END SPOILERS. Since no one is sympathetic and the plot gets predictable once the twist is revealed, I just don't recommend this one.

In addition... the cover makes absolutely no sense for this book.

Rating: 2/5

Almost

Almost

by Anne Eliot

Three years ago, Jess Jordan was almost raped.

Three years ago, Gray Porter almost testified to jail the senior who almost raped Jess.

Now, Jess is almost normal, at least to the outside world.

Now, Gray is almost ready to tell Jess the truth about what he knows.

But promised must be kept and bargains must be made.  

In order to convince her parents that she's normal, Jess decides to get a "pretend" boyfriend.  

In order to protect her from herself, Gray becomes Jess's "pretend" boyfriend. 

Now they are getting closer, both to each other and to the truth.

Final thoughts:  Very compelling story about the aftereffects of rape, even "almost rape".  While Jess was saved on the night of the party, her sanity wasn't and this book effectively puts the reader into the mind of the victim.  With the large number of rapes in this country, most of which go unreported, girls everywhere need a book like this to help them see that there is hope even if it takes years to get to it.  This is a good companion to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak.  The only real problem I had with this was the unwillingness of the characters to prosecute the attacker.  "Protecting the victim" is a fairly lame excuse in this book and the dad's reaction in the hospital after the attack was the wrong one, especially his refusal to get his daughter tested for rufies and other drugs.  It furthers this story, but it's not a decision that should be promoted.

It is also a true shame that the cover looks like it was designed in the 70's by someone on psychedelic drugs.  A new cover could really help get this book into the hands of the people who need it.

Rating: 4/5

Saving Francesca

Saving Francesca

by Melina Marchetta

All her life, Francesca has had her mother to tell her what to do.  And, while she thought her mother was a pain who was smothering her and never allowing her to do what she wanted, she never imagined how awful not having her mother would be.

It's not that her mother has died; it's that she's sunk into a serious depression.

Happy, in-control, play-a-song-to-start-the-day-mom has become trapped in her own sadness, under the blankets of her own bed.

Now Francesca must help her father take over the household chores that her mother always did.  She must keep up her little brother's spirits so that he doesn't become to scared or sad.  She must find a way to deal with starting her new term at a very recently, now formerly, all-boys school.  She must figure out who her real friends are.  And she must figure out how to deal with leader of her section who seems to see right through her façade and right into her soul.

(That last one probably wouldn't be too hard to figure out on her own if it wasn't for the fact that he has a girlfriend already even though he keeps finding excuses to kiss Fran.)

Can Francesca become the girl her mother's always wanted her to be without her mother there to guide her?  And will that person ultimately be the person Francesca wants to be, too?

Final thoughts:  This is an excellent book to share with older children who are dealing with depression, either their own or someone else's.  Francesca's problems are real and realistically portrayed.  She goes through ups and downs like anyone else caught in the middle of this type of thing and she struggles to figure out who to blame for what's going on.

Rating: 4/5