So yeah, I’ve been away for a long time. So long in fact that I can’t even remember what review I’m on…but I KNOW that I have to be really close to a Cannonball based on what I’ve read, just not on what I’ve reviewed (edit: I looked back I think my last one was 35…let’s see how much closer I can get to a cannonball). I’m breaking the rules and reviewing all the books that I’ve neglected over the past few months…right now. Who’s with me? Just me…*sigh* let’s do this. Hang on for the ride kids!
Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton #36
This was a pretty fun book to read. It’s twelve ghosts sit down at a table to tell a young boy stories of horror, mystery and the supernatural. Some of them are traditional ghost stories, some are mildly macabre, and some aren’t all that great. But you remember that book that everyone had in the ’80’s that you’d read at sleepovers and camp outs?? Yeah, that book,the stories are kind of like that. I recommend it for people who like very tame horror and scares. I had fun but I like my horror with more gore and tension. 3.5 stars/5
Macbeth by William Shakespeare #37
As always I enjoy teaching Macbeth. While not the most cerebral of the plays, it’s one of the most fun. Clocking in as the shortest Shakespeare play AND having a main character who tends to act rather than think, provides a recipe for the kids enjoying themselves rather than getting mired in the complexities of the soliloquies ( for example like with Hamlet). I like teaching both but this one has a little bit of everything for us to talk about: relationships (co-dependence?), guilt (who hasn’t felt the gnawing feeling of guilt?!?!), appearance vs. reality (guys, we can talk frenemies for days with teenagers!), fate vs. free will (another big one for the teen set to talk about), gender expectations and the problems with these stereotypes (did they lock husband and wife into something they couldn’t escape??) and even blind ambition. So yeah, we talked our little hearts out and they have presentations tomorrow about their studies and I’m hoping they make me proud and that my heart grows 3 whole sizes! 5/5 stars
Children of the Dark by Jonathan Janz #38
This book. This book gave me so much hope after the great big void that has been left in my heart after reading the Pine Deep trilogy for some (pardon my french) “balls to the wall” horror. The cover looked so cool, like old school awesome! Look:
But alas, even though it has 4.8 stars on Amazon, my heart wasn’t really in it. There was A LOT going on…weird creatures that get wakened by some quarry drilling, a serial killer who conveniently busts out of prison just in time for their awakening (fine, whatever), a reallllyyyyy convenient plot twist that will make you groan because the author was about as subtle as a chainsaw when laying down the clues concerning it. The main character was pretty cool–he loves his sister Peach, he’s in love with a girl I pictured to looked exactly like Lori Petty from Point Break and his mom is a straight up drug addict until she wakes up and says, “I’m not going to be an addict anymore…and she’s not!! (mostly because she ends up dead…sorry, that was a spoiler but it was something you could see coming from a mile away). Anyways, like I said, it got rave reviews but I thought it needed some serious refining and honing of the A and B plot line. Also, I wasn’t able to clearly picture the monsters which I found annoying. I know they were big, slimy and had male parts if they had male parts (because one of them was going to rape a female teen victim before eating her. What? No. Unnecessary and stupid). 2.5/5 stars
November 9 by Colleen Hoover #39
Oh this book. It was a book club book and I wasn’t a fan. Girl has burns on her face from a tragic accident, boy sweeps in and “saves her” from a bad conversation with her father. Boy and Girl (I can’t be bothered to look up their names) spend the day and evening together (get it,Girl!) and then they decide that they will meet every year for five years on November 9 and he will write a book about it and become a famous author. She will become a famous (uhhhhh drawing a blank here…oh yeah, she’s going to get BACK INTO acting after her horrific burn accident…but now she’ll do stage work since Hollywood won’t touch her post burn). And they meet up, and meet up, and break up, a terrible (in my opinion) book is finished by the guy/secrets are revealed…Will they meet up again on the following November 9??? Only time and the turning of pages will tell. Too much melodrama for me, sorry kids! 1.5/5…again, my opinion is dirt because it has a very SOLID 5/5 stars on Amazon. I think everyone is drunk.
Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer#40
Someone else reviewed Spontaneous and even though it wasn’t a glowing review I couldn’t get the premise out of my head. Something inexplicable is happening the Senior Class of Covington High. Mara Carlyle, senior and cynic attempts to find out what’s going on with the help of her best friend and a random female FBI agent who has been assigned to the case. When the seniors get quarantined to a particular part of the town, unable to leave but also unable to participate in normal senior high activities, Mara sets up a school for just the seniors…and things are great, for awhile…
I loved the premise of the book, I thought the writing was solid, I liked the characters even the unlikable ones but what I didn’t like were the loose ends. We don’t get a lot of satisfying answers about anything and that’s a shame because the book has real promise and then wheezes towards the finish line where it promptly dies inches before touching the tape. That said, I still liked it, right up until the end. And hey, maybe it has some deeper allegorical stuff going on that I didn’t catch (but I don’t think so??) 3/5 stars
You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott #41
This is a weird book to write about because it’s about a young gymnast named Devon Knox…but then it’s not. It’s about all the hopes that her parents, her peers, her peers’ parents and just about everyone who knows her, pin on her and the resolve and grit she has. It’s about a death of a boy. It’s about secrets and lies. It’s about being a teenage girl. It’s about being a driven human being. It’s about being a mom. It’s about living vicariously through one’s children. It’s about mistakes in the past and what binds people together…and it’s also about the poor little brother who is barely in the book because his laser focused gymnast freak of a sister is all anyone actually cares about. This poorly written summary doesn’t tell you how I actually feel about this book. I liked it. I really liked it. Yeah, it’s kind of formulaic to an extent (you KNOW the twist and I think you know how it’s dealt with ) but I really liked getting to know these very different characters and what was driving them. Megan Abbott basically writes horror novels about young athletic girls who will stop at nothing to get what they want…and she should never stop. 4/5 stars.
Dare Me by Megan Abbott #42
In this Megan Abbott book we get thrust into the world of competitive cheer leading. I played four sports in high school and we didn’t have a cheer leading team, but I’ll be honest, I never thought of them as athletes at the time. But these ladies are athletes and they are hardcore. The book tackles the dynamic of dominant young ladies fighting for the same spots on the team; it shows how much ambition can turn someone into a monster…or were they monsters all along? Like as in You Will Know Me, we deal with adults living vicariously through the girls. We have secrets, lies and people that get manipulated until something happens that can’t be taken back.
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon #43
The selling blurb on Amazon says the following: “if you love Eleanor and Park, Hazel and Augustus, and Mia and Adam, you’ll love the story of Maddy, a girl who’s literally allergic to the outside world, and Olly, the boy who moves in next door . . . and becomes the greatest risk she’s ever taken.” Isn’t that just so twee and adorbs?? Because I did love Eleanor and Park, I did like Hazel and Augustus, and I have no idea who Mia and Adam are…but I thought, “Hey! I’ll read it!” And I did… and it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that great–but it might be? I don’t think I was the intended audience–at all. I read a lot of YA lit that doesn’t require the person to be 16 or 17, this book though? I think it might be helpful to be 14-18. First of all it involves some insta-love which I’m not a fan of, but insta-love (or the feeling of it) does happen when you’re 14.. I can see why Maddy might be insta-love susceptible considering that she’s allergic to the outside world. Olly has everything going for him in the outside world and he’s instantly taken with Maddy. And then they do something wild and impulsive…but it could have devastating consequences (you know, like how life works and stuff…). I can’t say that I liked the book and I can’t talk about the why too much but I think the adults in the books are terrible one-dimensional people. They are completely unrealistic monsters…almost if I wrote a book as a teenager and described my interactions with all adults who I felt were “holding me back in life” (hint: they probably weren’t, I was just constantly angry at everyone! YAY!). Anyways, it was kind of a cutesy book but it was too unbelievable for jaded old me. 2.5/5 stars
Stay tuned. More to come. I’m not going out without a Cannonball and I know just the thing that will help me cross the threshold– a 16 hour drive to Florida on Christmas Day. Bring it!