Book Review: Half Life

Book Review:
Half Life
by Lillian Clark
Pub Date: 09 Jun 2020

It took me half of the way through this book to become more than half interested in Half Life. If I could give it half the stars (2.5), I would.

I had a problem from the get-go with the clone company's ability to "decommission" their clones with no remorse to the clone's humanity as well as why a sentient clone would allow themselves to be "decommissioned." Sure, tension, conflict, and all of that, but it didn't provide me with a realistic scifi atmosphere; it was more of a manipulated fantasy.  The only way I could justify the use of decommissioning without concern for the clone being decommissioned was to assume there was going to be some kind of dun.dun.dun. moment; there wasn't. The disregard for the 'experiment' was simply disregard for the experiment. 

In the first 49% of the book, I only made one comment under the "interesting" category: That Lucy the clone could express, "Missing someone you've never met is the strangest feeling." In hindsight I felt there was too much set up of Lucille, her psyche, her issues, her self-esteem issues, in order to justify the story line. It took up half of the book, which left me with half of a book to enjoy. After Lucille's character was established during the first half of the book, the entire tone of the book changed and became more engaging and took on a better pace. Students who need to be absorbed by a book in the first 10-20 pages might not make it to the better half of the book.

I couldn't decide if I liked that it took me (i.e., the reader) a while to figure out that Lucille was self-absorbed and that Lucy was more empathetic to people than Lucille was. I finally came to appreciate the irony of Lucy's humanity as juxtaposed to Lucille's. What bothered me then, was how it emphasized how inhumane the cloning company was. AH! So that was the point! Well done, Ms. Clark. On the other hand... it was a plot manipulation to have no one actually ask each other about their feelings or intentions: Lucille and Lucy didn't talk; they just assumed. Same with the company; they just assumed they had non-sentient beings instead of asking or figuring it out? Not a very good model of the scientific method. Moreover, was Lucille really so self-absorbed that even she didn't think of Lucy as sentient? That required a whole lot of suspension of disbelief this far into the story.

Good parts? The second half was filled with fun, sometimes witty and snarky banter; the author was very good at this kind of flirtatious dialog. Her timing and not taking innuendos too far worked well for her characters. The second half also used really good, interesting vocabulary that added to the story when it could have detracted from it (omnipresent, nihilist, ersatz, absconding).

Quirks if the second half? Just after the half way point the author alluded to the fluid nature of [teen] sexual identity by using the word 'allo,' which refers to someone who experiences sexual attraction to others as opposed to being asexual. The second half of the book continued to allude to gender-neutral terms of address (Mx.) and "their' instead of "his or her." Why did it take this long for the author to use this language? It almost felt like her editor told her she had to put it in somewhere, so it got dropped in. (Also, based on the chronological setting of the book, was it really necessary to slip in a snide remark about the POTUS?)

If it weren't for my commitment to NetGalley and the publishers to complete my reviews in exchange for early readership approval, this was almost a DNF. Half Life would have only had a half life for me.

Book review: Nowhere on Earth

Book Review: Nowhere on Earth by Nick Lake
Pub Date: 26 May 2020
Read courtesy of http://netgalley.com

One word: derivative.

First, though, this book didn't know what it wanted to be. It felt easy to read, but right off the bat (chapter 1, paragraph 1) the author threw in "big words," which could easily turn off the reluctant reader who might have otherwise found this a highly accessible book.

Second, I honestly do not know if my high schoolers like reading stories where the teenage protagonist  (Emily) is smarter than the adults, but I personally dislike that as a plot method. Yes, teenagers mostly do think they are smarter than their parents, but to make that the premise of a book, as if the teen is a superhero and the parents are clueless, gets old.

OK, back to "derivative." Quite early in the story I felt like I was reading E.T., the Extra-terrestrial. This feeling resurfaced often. Then the Men in Black reference was repeated (and repeated) throughout the book. Then the plane crash was like Hatchet. I even got a hint of Star Wars with a line that sounded like, "These are not the droids you are looking for." Then a little bit of Star Trek was thrown in with their "prime directive"; Aidan couldn't interfere with the Earth's history. I hit my limit when Aidan's departure mimicked E.T.'s "I'll be right here" and I pictured the author thinking, "Queue E.T.s glowing finger." That wasn't the last unoriginal reference, though; the goodbye scene with Emily and Aidan turned into the intro from The Big Bang Theory.

I found the author's descriptions of Emily's father to be inconsistent in that his personality didn't match his character in the end. Throughout she describe him as "all military precision and attention," "Emily's dad had many useful things in his backpack - that was his style...," "...her dad, sticking to the logic of the story," "She was still averting her eyes. Her dad would see her lies in an instant, if he looked into them," "...her dad said needlessly, and Emily realized something else: this was how he dealt with stress. By trying to understand, to analyze," and "That was Emily's dad: no need to discuss what kind of message, or how, or anything irrelevant like that. Pure focus on the plan." Then at the end,

There was an awkward silence, and then they laughed. They tried not to talk too much about the time after the plane crash - he parents told themselves a story abut it, that they'd been in a rush to get to civilization, but Emily could tell they only partially believed it, and that the best way for them to reconcile the events with the kind of people they understood themselves to be was to not think about it.

To be fair, there were some positives. The author obviously took a great deal of thought into making Aidan's character's abilities consistent and plausible. That's a real plus, since the story wouldn't have worked at all without this being tight and dependable. I was also pleasantly surprised at how clever the author had Emily be at the end with the man in the gray suit, playing like she knew as much as her parents did about the events that occurred.

However, I think the author did more thinking about how he could mix ET with Agent J or Spock than he did about making an original and absorbing story. <2 stars="">

Book review: What I Want You to See

What I Want You to See
by Catherine Linka
Pub Date: 04 Feb 2020
read courtesy of Netgalley.com


As a YA School Librarian, I try to read books from the perspective of my students. Although I've given this story a 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for its story, I can only see it being a 3 ⭐⭐⭐ for my high school students. I loved the story and the style of writing, but I'm just not sure it's the type of story my students would enjoy. It's hard to say what about it does this: perhaps part writing style, part narrow character/plot appeal.  The ability of a reader to relate to the world of an artist might affect how receptive the reader will be to this story. If it weren't for an art teacher in my current school who works with encaustics (hot wax painting), I might have been more lost in the story.


Personally, I liked the writing style; although, it did take a bit of getting used to; but once I did, I flew through the rest of the story. It isn't a "great literature" style, more like both sophisticated and terse at the same time. The juxtaposition of style matches the main character's, Sabine's, duality, a teenager who has to grow into adulthood alone.


Linka fleshed out believable characters with realistic dialogue. Her characters don't feel cookie cutter or stereotypical. She didn't have to exaggerate or embellish and thereby kept her characters true to themselves. Linka also accomplished something I find that quite a few of the authors I read have a problem doing: she provided a satisfying and not forced ending to the story.


I appreciated the internal dialogues Sabine has with herself regarding morality. She ended up doing something that was morally correct and personally difficult. I found myself questioning myself as to what I might have done and when I might have done it. I can ask no more from an author than this: I was engaged in the story!

Book Review: The Twin

The Twin by Natasha Preston
Publish date 3/3/2020
Read courtesy of NetGalley.net

Ms. Preston is way lucky the ending was worth the wait, because I almost never got there. About one-third through the story, I was ready to make this a DNF. It felt repetitive and formulaic. Been-there-done-that-check list: Evil twin ✔️, clueless adults ✔️, fickle friends ✔️... But I decided to stick with it to see what's it was about this story that was worth publishing it. I'm glad I did.

However, I'm not sure how I'm going to convince my high schoolers to keep reading past the commonplace plot other than to put a big "Wait for it...!" sign on the cover.

Some real positives, however, are that there were a lot of truisms in the story without being preachy. It didn't become a self-help book for someone who has lost a parent. I also feel like Ms. Preston did her best to make this a psychological thriller and not about mental health.

I'll get this for my high school library and wait to see what happens...

Book Review: Break in Case of Emergency

Break in Case of Emergency
by Brian Francis
Pub Date: 04 Feb 2020

Read courtesy of NetGalley.com

First, I don't get the title; although, I get what the author wanted me to get from the title. It just didn't work. Even the addition of Trisha's egg gift to Toby didn't make the title any more relevant. I almost feel like the title is the opposite of what the author intended. 

Rural, conservative Canada... and a homophobic town. That's the setting. It was pretty one dimensional. I couldn't get past the characterizations and dialogue as stereotypical rather than as prose. The people in Toby's life are afraid to talk about everything: her mother's suicide, her father's abandonment, sex... They taught her to be humiliated by her parents. OK, I know that's how characterization occurs, but the turnaround time on the undoing of years of silence occurred quite quickly once Toby herself tries to commit suicide.

Toby's friendship with Trisha is seen from Toby's point-of-view, a skewed portrayal of a shallow, not-very-supportive long-time friend. Trisha seems to both protect and rip on Toby simultaneously; it feels superficial. And Trisha uses the phrase "bitch mom" when talking to Toby about Trisha's mother, but no where in the story does Mrs. Richardson get portrayed that way. 

Suicide isn't meant to be logical, and the author doesn't make it so. That's a good thing. Toby's justifications for committing suicide herself make that lack of logic clear. The only reason she offered that gave me pause was by asserting that people (she) loved her mom more when she was dead than when she was alive. It struck home for me how people convince themselves that others would be better off without them. But other reasons given felt more like exaggerations of teen drama. I don't know enough about suicide to know the accuracy of the reasons or if it was just the writing that didn't work for me. On the other hand, having Toby later be made to actually think about herself as one day being old felt like a genuine response to make to someone who attempted suicide.

I was taken aback by how quickly Toby turned around from thinking how she could try to commit suicide again to thinking there might actually be hope. It seemed to occur in one afternoon. Not only that, but that one afternoon also swayed her grandmother Kay to accept Toby's father again after years of animosity. The time frame for this turnaround was not realistic. It detracted from Toby's believability as a character.

I wanted to like this book more than I did, but I don't. I'm not sure how useful it would be in a YA collection in a community where teen suicides occur, especially since the repair of this character's psyche occurred in the snap of a finger... the egg shell never got broken (a-ha! Maybe that's what the title meant? There was never a second emergency?)

Book Review: What Unbreakable Looks Like

What Unbreakable Looks Like
by Kate McLaughlin
Pub Date: 23 Jun 2020

Read courtesy of NetGalley.com

There's a group in my high school promoting the understanding of human trafficking. I think I now understand it more with this book than from the group's efforts alone to educate our community. What Unbreakable Looks Like brought the topic home, literally. I embarrassingly never realized how close to home it could be. Thank you, Kate McLaughlin, for this important story.

At first I was thinking this coverage of the topic was too much for some of my high schoolers, but I was self-censoring. If it could happen to my students, they should be able to read about it. I'm also going to recommend it as a book club title sponsored by the group in my school who have taken on this terrible topic.

What Unbreakable Looks Like is an accessible read. I read it in one day, which shows how well-written and well-told this compelling story is. I made a note at one point in the book at which Alexa (not Poppy) sees a familiar, i.e., threatening, car and speculates who is behind the wheel. McLaughlin deftly uses Alexa's thoughts juxtaposed with the reality of the situation to allow the reader to experience what Alexa experiences. Not once did I feel I encountered a character who did not have a part to play in this story; the characters were real, three-dimensional people. The flow of the story, which flashed back and forth in time, didn't confuse the reader and might have even helped to break the tensions in the action to allow the reader to process the intensities.

I highly recommend this visceral novel to high schoolers who are drawn to social issues or to the YA genre of realistic fiction that includes death, drugs, and disease (which is actually a genre-subsection in my library!) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Book Review: Jane Anonymous by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Book Review
Jane Anonymous by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Pub Date: 07 Jan 2020
Read courtesy of Netgalley.com

LOVED IT! I got almost half way through the book before I even stopped to make my usual notes. Gripping, engaging, accessible, and intriguing. Then when I did finally make my first note, it was to express how the box of brownies Jane has with her in captivity reminded me of Wilson in the movie "Castaway." And that's a good thing (for me) since I love watching that movie.

I cannot go into how much this book pulled me in, or I will give away some of the plot. Suffice it to say that I 😲OMG'ed to myself when the abductor was revealed. Since this genre isn't my usual fare, maybe I just wasn't able to piece things together, so I was wonderfully surprised. I'd rather like to think, though, that Stolarz did a great job of weaving a believable tale that allowed her reader to be, well, wonderfully surprised! I had another WOWOWOWOW moment about 85% through the story, which I also cannot describe without giving away some of the mystery. However, it occurred regarding a drawing when the psychological background of the abductor was being revealed. Stolarz crafted both believable characters and a plot that didn't use ploys to make it happen.

I also really liked the way Stolarz allowed Jane to organically find someone with whom she could click in order to get the help she needed after her kidnapping. It felt real or natural for a traumatized teen to reject the counselors her equally traumatized mother wanted her to see.

I also liked Stolarz's use of NOW and THEN to guide the reader through the story. My favorite use of this was between chapters 59 and 60. I liked that NOW chapter 59 was followed by another NOW chapter. It kept the reader in an important moment of the story.

Regarding the plot thread of the shelter dog, I did note to myself that "maybe it's too obvious a connection between Jane and the dog's plight, but maybe that's how it works in real life, too." And being a dog love, I'm glad that sometimes, yes, that's exactly what happens; we heal each other.

In both books and movies, I get the feeling it is really difficult to create an ending. While I was pleased that the story didn't have a tidy ending for Jane, the epilogue felt extraneous and forced, like Stolarz had to try to explain what really couldn't be explained... Jane just had to work through what happened to her, and leaving the reader with a dreamlike final explanation detracted from the work the reader knows Jane has ahead of her. Still, a 5 ☆☆☆☆☆!

Book Review: Oasis by Katya de Becerra

Book Review:
Oasis by Katya de Becerra
Pub Date: 07 Jan 2020
Read courtesy of Netgalley.com

I so wanted to like this as much as I started out liking it. It really pulled me in quickly. I can see how it was initially described as Lost mixed with Twilight Zone, but I guess I was hoping for more Twilight Zone mixed with Lost.  I personally enjoy more scifi than fantasy, and Oasis was definitely more fantasy than scifi.

Confession: At first I thought the "diversity thing" was over the top, but I quickly understood the setting was absolutely appropriate for scholars from all over to participate in an archaeological dig. I was glad to find the mix of characters was not just a ploy for inclusiveness. I did have a bit of a struggle with some of the characterization (Would a 13 year old boy run to greet an older teenager girl and hug her? What about a brooding, moody, slightly older assistant would appeal so strongly to a teenage girl?) On the other hand, I give de Becerra props for being able to provide two different personalities to each character depending on the plot influences.

From what follows you might get the feeling I really didn't like the book, but I did. I just liked the beginning and where I thought the dig plot was going more than I did where it ended up. So what follows in this review are things that detracted from my fuller enjoyment of the book:

• I get the teen hormone thing, but the kissing did seem to appear at random (or inopportune) times. I guess that's how it is with teens. I know the kissing was the plot device to imbue the main character with self-consciousness and doubt, but it seemed to belie her strength and wisdom as a strong female character. 
• In one scene, the brooding, moody character tells the main character, "It'll be all right," after she says she has doubts about their situation. It reminded me of the insurance commercial where the frightened teens agree to run into the chainsaw shack instead of escaping into the running car. A bit too obvious that danger lurked ahead.
• Another short scene was full of psychobabbly, new-agey philosophy. I wondered at the time I was reading it if teens like that mumbo-jumbo and would buy into it.
• For me the depth of the stolen tablet's insight into the characters was lessened by the fully developed characterization of the main players previously by the main character. I just thought the part where the tablet "made things clearer for its host" really just reiterated the things that main character had already revealed about her friends.
• When the characters each experienced the tablet in different ways, why was Rowen's depiction one of a tree? Nothing else in the story implied that vision, so it felt random to me.
• Is it me, or was it too obvious for the author to use the terms "alternate reality" and "parallel universe" toward the end of the story. Did that need to be spelled out so blatantly? And what about the use of "alien threat"? That TOTALLY changed what the dark essence was for me and took me even further out of what I had come to find comfort in while trying to stay engrossed with the story. An alien threat is a very specific choice of words that restricts the reader's imagination. 

The book had a really strong beginning; I'll give it that. I was compelled to read it, and then I was compelled to read it to see if it dug its way out of the hole it fell into. If you're a fantasy fan, it did. If you're a scifi fan, it stayed buried.

Book Review: Crying Laughing

Book Review
Crying Laughing by Lance Rubin
Publishing date: November 19, 2019
Read courtesy of netgalley.com

5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
If we couldn't get more of Denton Little, at least we have Winnie Friedman. Cleverly written story about comedy without being forced and corny -- quite an achievement. Makes me want to start an improv club for my students!

Even though I know a bat mitzvah is for girls and a bar mitzvah is for boys, and the reader is told about the character's bat mitzvah, I still found myself [pleasantly] surprised when I absorbed that the protagonist was a female and not a male. This is a good thing since I was able to break myself from stereotypical thinking early in the story. I think that the character is Jewish also makes for a subtle take on the humor that other ethnicities might not have inherent in their culture, the subtleties between puns and sarcasm, which are so integral to Jewish and Yiddish parlance. In other words, this mix of character development worked very well for this story.

And speaking of inherent ... sporks are inherently funny. Just sayin'...

Teens will relate to the cute humor throughout the story, too. For example, categorizing potential relationships as "hope-will-flirts," "neutral-will-flirts," and "please-don't-flirts" is funny and quite teenager-ish.

While the humor carries the story afloat, the author does an a-ma-zing job of showing a teen's understanding of complicated adult conversations. Winnie's father has ALS, and the subject is handled honestly from the patient-, the parent, and the family-perspectives. All of the characters are treated with equal humanness and not made into oversimplified caricatures.

The few criticisms I have do not deter from the 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ or the story. There are just a few times where the writing is too PC or 'too' inclusive just to fit in with the contemporary times....Jews, hijabs, and trigger warnings. There are also some contemporary references that might date the book before it's ready to be a thing of the past: Polly-O string cheese (specifically Polly-O), the TV show Parks and Rec, Totes McGotes, and FOMO.

Regardless, I loved this book and cannot wait to get it for my high school library!

Book Review: Every Stolen Breath

Book Review:
Every Stolen Breath
by Kimberly Gabriel
Pub Date: 05 Nov 2019
Read courtesy of netgalley.com

⭐⭐⭐
I wanted to like this; parts of it felt original. However, much of it didn't. It tried so hard to keep you guessing that it was more frustrating than intriguing. I made a note to myself at one point, "plot-stupid move." In other words, either the author (and editor) tripped themselves up and allowed something to be included that was just too obvious or cliche, or the author envisioned an eventual movie. Since it's based on a real-life event, it is a shame that the fictionalization of the event got muddled in its retelling.

I enjoyed the teen portion of this novel, just not so much the adult pompous political baloney. The two main characters' relationship (Ryan and Lia) was fun an engaging journey to follow, but the politician's son, Cullen, was quite a stereotypical arse.

Since I wanted to like it, I'm curious to see what my teens think of this book and if I'm just having an adult reaction to it.

Book Review: Me and Mr. Cigar

Book Review
Me and Mr. Cigar by Gibby Haynes
Publishing date: January 21, 2020
Read courtesy of NetGalley.com


I wanted to like this book; it's about a dog, after all. But one-third of the way through, it became a DNF for me. The author's drug-fueled magical realism was, um, drug-fueled. Not that there's anything wrong with that (*cough*sputter*), but though it made sense in the author's own head, it never made it from his head to the paper in a coherent way. An author cannot surf on the w(hole) of his name and just hope not to end up on his butt.

Book Review: The Speed of Falling Objects

Book Review
The Speed of Falling Objects by Nancy Richardson Fischer
Publishing Date: October 1, 2019
Read courtesy of NetGalley.com

YES! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I haven't cried while reading a book in a long time. Thank you, Ms. Fischer, for getting to me. I cannot wait to get this into the hands of my high schoool readers.

Not only did the author wow me with a book I expected to just be a knock off of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (it wasn't!), but she also included references to one of my favoritest books of all time, The Phantom Tollbooth. This book was a win-win for me.

Danny's nickname is Pigeon, and she explains why throughout the story. Even the research on all of the pigeon characteristics and metaphors would have wowed me, but Fischer goes on to research survival skills 🔥 , the Amazon rain forests ☔️  🌳, snakes 🐍 , spiders 🕷 , and scorpions 🦂  (among a myriad of other creepy crawlies), plane crashes ✈️ and the medical possibilities that might occur from one, the planes themselves, and reality television. And it works!

The best part of Fischer's story is that it is really about growing up as much as if not more than surviving a plane crash in the Peruvian rain forest. It's a full-on metaphor of surviving being a teen, coming-of-age, and finding identity. And she didn't preach at the reader - not once.

Book Review: Gravity

Book Review
Gravity by Sarah Deming
Publishing date: November 12, 2019
Read courtesy of Netgalley.com

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to recommending it to my high school students. It will appeal to a wide range of readers because it crosses cultural, gender, and pastime boundaries.

Deming did a nice job of giving characters personalities and motivations (for ex., why a guy named Monster always wore pink.) The characters had distinct and interesting personalities. Their interplay was purposeful and engaging. Readers will want to continue to read to go through the characters' ups and downs with them.

Not knowing Spanish or NYC culture, I had to look up quite a few terms (foods or the name of a game) that I couldn't figure out from their context. As a teen I probably wouldn't be as hung up, i.e. anal, about looking up those words, but as a former English teacher/current librarian, I had to 😉. I also didn't know some of the boxing terms - yes, I looked them up, too - even though they were a little easier to figure out. On the other hand, Deming did well explaining the difference between a puncher and a boxer, which was important to some of the characterizations.

Deming inserted off-color but tame humor that teens at which teens might groan but secretly appreciate. She also inserted a red herring in the story that really threw me off (no spoiler, but it included a selfie); I kept expecting this inclusion in the plot to have serious repercussions, but that never materialized. It was probably left in the story to show how distracted Gravity was at that point, but that could have been accomplished in a different way, especially since nothing came of it. There was also a gratuitous mention of Michael Phelps -- I'll assume to create the timeline and setting.

Favorite line: "Regrets are like roaches. Exterminate them before that multiply."

A missing piece for me is explaining how Gravity got the money to do all of her international traveling.

Milk became a motif. I have nothing more to say about this [yet].

I'll also have to say that I'll recommend this book to students who can keep a fairly large number of characters straight. In spite of often using nicknames and not given names, I still sometimes had difficulty with remembering which character had what role for this story.

Book Review: Girls Like Us

I read Girls Like Us by Randi Pink, due to be published October 29, 2019, through the courtesy of NetGalley.com.

I liked this book as historical fiction because it made the characters realistic. It forayed into things with which I am unfamiliar and told the story well enough for me to be interested as well as engaged. I'll admit that at first I was confused by the hopping around of characters, but that soon dissipated when I realized it as a storytelling technique for how the girls were intertwined.

The author created characters in which I was invested. I believed them. I felt for them.

I would have given the book 5 stars if it weren't for the ending. It was not a bad ending, but it was jarring. I understood the point of the ending; however, after reading 91% of the book in a different time, the last 9% was more message or platform than story. I couldn't keep myself from comparing the three witches from Witches of Eastwick with the three grandmothers in this ending. It felt more surreal than real.

Regardless of the in-your-face message at the end, I still think this book is a good way to make an important point: women's choice. This book will make a good jumping off for many conversations about the topic of abortion, teenage pregnancy, and women's right to choose.

Book Review: 10 Blind Dates

Book Review:
10 Blind Dates
by Ashley Elston
Publishing Date: 01 Oct 2019 
Read courtesy of Netgalley.com

Though not as sophisticated, I believe this book fits in with what the Sarah Dessen - Jay Asher - John Green - Deb Caletti readers might enjoy.

The main character, Sophie, has a very large family, necessary for the plot to take place. However, I got confused trying to keep them straight. The author, Ashley Elston, had to create a lot of personalities to give her secondary characters motivation, and I often had to re-read parts I'd previous read to get their relationships clear.

I made some comments to myself of things that distracted me from the story, really minor things, but I felt if these were able to distract me, then I wasn't too invested in the story. Things like "Who makes peanut butter cannolis?" and "Muffalettas aren't Italian," and "Seriously, another librarian stereotype?"
To be fair, there were times when I found myself engaged enough to try to guess who the dates might be, to chuckle where the reader was supposed to chuckle at a corny line or two, and to think, "Good pick! Good surprise and fits with the picker's personality," when one of Sophie's relatives picked someone Sophie already knew.

I'm still contemplating whether there was a need for a secondary story line as extensive as the one for Sophie's sister, Margot. I got that family was important and that the author needed a plot device to get Sophie to visit her relatives, but that story line didn't add to the family-importance theme in a significant way, and it often distracted from the primary story line.

Half-way through the story it was obvious with whom Sophie was supposed to end up. The author did do a nice job, though, of drawing the reader into routing for him even while Sophie was going on dates with others.

This story allowed the author to be creative, and it was (briefly) fun to see all of the different dates Sophie's relative planned for her. But like Sophie said, "I never thought I'd get tired of going on dates, but I'm officially there." Once each date was revealed, I also got tired of being on the dates with her. And I wondered how great her family could be if they were using these young men for their own entertainment.

Book Review: The Twilight Zone

Book Review
The Twilight Man
a graphic novel by Koren Shadmi
Publish date: 08 Oct 2019
Read courtesy of Netgalley.com

I don't care whether you're a fan of "The Twilight Zone" or not. This graphic novel biography about Rod Serling is excellent. It's strength is that it showed the evolution of the man and his storytelling. The drawings were clear and not confusing while maintaining drama and emotion. It was a quick read for 169 pages. And the ending didn't disappoint; well, in real life it did, but this iteration of the storytelling did not. I cannot wait to get this for my high school library!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Book Review: The Liars of Mariposa Island

Book Review
The Liars of Mariposa Island
by Jennifer Mathieu
Publication Date 17 Sep 2019
Read courtesy of NetGalley.com

I have to be honest; I forgot what the title of this book was while I was reading it. Now that I see it has the word "Liars" in it, the book makes more sense. It's about liars. I like the book a 1/2 star better than I did before remembering the title.

The story is about a dysfunctional family fooling itself at every turn. Each family member lies to him/herself and, in turn, to each other. And it's not the kind of lying that's obvious; it's a self-preservation technique, yet it crumbles rather than coheres the family. On the other hand, some of the lying is so obvious that it's hard to believe its believed.

I enjoyed the point in the book when the reader is finally let in on the biggest lie perpetuated by the two teen children in the family. Once it is revealed, the mother's self-denial becomes more apparent and more dysfunctional.

The mother's lie to her children comes to light later in the story; however, it's revealed in too obvious a manner. It felt the plot point that allowed this lie to emerge lacked narrative creativity (been there, done that).

The story includes sex, and drugs, and boozy beach parties. These feel gratuitously included to "appeal" to teen readers.

Finally, the ending was abrupt. The only truth to the story is that no one wins in the end, including the reader.

Book Review: The Stone Rainbow

The Stone Rainbow
by Liane Shaw
Pub Date: 17 Sep 2019 
Read courtesy of NetGalley.com

My first note to myself early in the book was, "As a straight person, I've been curious about this. Maybe I'll find out," in reaction to Jack wondering how to find out if someone he might be interested in is gay or not.   It ends up that I don't explicitly "find out," due mainly to the fact that there's nothing to "find out." One simply asks someone, no different than a straight person finds out if a straight person is interested in return -- and sometimes the person isn't straight! People are people! (I also didn't find out because Jack's crush, Benjamin, isn't shy about liking other guys.)

The author's message is clear throughout the book. "I don't live in a fantasy land where being gay is easy. It should be. I don't know why it isn't. Why would anyone care who I decide to spend time with?" and "I'll always have a different heaven from hers. In her heaven, everyone starts fresh, reborn into something better than before. Blind men can see, and the lame can walk...and I would guess the gays become "straight" if they make it that far." [Powerful in the declaration that some see "straight" people as better than "gay" people, that "straight" is something to aspire to.] And the more obvious parade rally cry, "Kindness rules": "If everyone just decides to treat everyone else with kindness, it all goes away. Intolerance,, disrespect, racism, homophobia, misogyny, bullying...all wiped out with one simple command. Be kind."

At first I thought this was just a romance novel, which felt a little light and fluffy and not holding my attention, but it took a more serious turn. I found myself immediately drawn into things that happen in real life... and I cannot believe people do this to others. But they do, and the author offered a way to counteract violence with grace.  This story didn't need to be written in great literary prose in order for a clear message and interesting story to come through.

Book Review: Flutter

Flutter
by Gina Linko
Pub Date: 23 Oct 2012 
read courtesy of Netgalley.com

Note: I, too, received this as a galley copy to review many years ago, but I just got around to posting about it.

This was a quick read, well, a compelling read, because I was pulled along by the plot, the mystery of Emery's illness, and the connections all of the characters had. Time travel always messes with my head (think Back to the Future), so I had fun trying to piece the story together at the same time Emery was. Then... and I agree with other reviewers on this, too ... I had my WTF moment at the end. If I hadn't read the print version and instead read the Netgalley digital version, I might have missed the author's note that she likes to pursue "What if...?". Only this note, that the author was purporting that alternative inevitabilities are her passion, allowed me to understand why Linko surprised her readers with this twist.

Overall, this was good, interesting YA writing. Yet, though I understand why Linko couldn't have built up to this ending earlier, it really did come out of nowhere with the minor exception of a conversation Emery and Ash had late in the story.

This book would be hard to classify as scifi, because it turns into fantasy. Recommend this book to readers who like the book The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold or the movie The Sixth Sense.

Caution: Spoiler alerts:

1. Where did Dala go when she fluttered with Emery? If the past was an afterlife, then did Emery kill Dala somehow?
2. How could Emery take people/things from the present back and forth to the afterlife? Did they temporarily die, too?
3. Why could Emery see her grandmother, Ash's brother, her mom, but not Ash's mom in the afterlife?
4. In hindsight, it makes sense that Emery couldn't see Ash's father in the afterlife, but that still doesn't explain why she didn't see his mother.

Book Review: Hope Is Our Only Wing

Hope Is Our Only Wing
by Rutendo Tavengerwei
Pub Date: 10 Sep 2019
read courtesy of Netgalley.com

Note: Let your readers know that there is a glossary at the back of the book. Because I read this as a digital galley, I didn't find the glossary until after I finished reading, and it would have been helpful to have been aware of it earlier.

I agree with prior reviews that this is a middle school book, but I also think that it's not as easy a read as others have noted. While the vocabulary is not too difficult (besides the references to African terms, for which there is a glossary), the concepts of politics and disease and cultural references might pose a challenge for some students. We're lucky, however, in this time of the Internet, that we have the ability to easily quench our curiosities. For example, as a result of a reference to "Oliver Mtukudzi's timeless voice," I was able to find out that he died recently, January 2019, and hear an example of his sound on YouTube (https://youtu.be/p-JUy6p0Qpw). And though I could figure out what ZESA was from context, I could also look up that it's the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority.

As an educator, I was drawn to the words of wisdom one character's grandfather imparted, one "could quit if it was the instrument that was making him miserable. But if it was the learning he was trying to avoid, he would have to toughen up."

In spite of the unfamiliarity with the setting, readers will be drawn in by the developing friendship between the two main characters. As readers we're given room to experience the interplay of actions and feelings the two girls experience rather than being explicitly spoon fed what to think and feel. I liked that about Tavengerwei's style. I think sophisticated middle school readers will like this story.