The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott

Breaking the friendship code..., May 8, 2010

This review is from: The Unwritten Rule (Hardcover)

Before you read further, go buy Scott's novel Living Dead Girl -- now there's a novel that will appeal to YA readers everywhere.

I'm not sure why most of the reviewers think this book was so great. To me, it seemed such a cliché of bad friendship, high school, and the mean person getting her comeuppance. Frankly, I can only imagine that the positive reviews from the book are either from women who have "stolen" their best friend's boyfriend or from those who wish they could. The justification for Sarah and Ryan getting together seems to be that Brianna was the "bad friend" who put Sarah down. I am not buying into that whole cliché that Brianna got what she deserved. Sarah was not a good, honest friend to her. Sure Brianna had lots of issues -- and her parents were also portrayed as very one-dimensional as were all the characters in this novel -- but was she deserving of her boyfriend and her so called best friend going behind her back? What prevented them from being upfront and honest from the beginning? Immaturity. I had no respect for either.

There's a reason for this "unwritten rule" among girlfriends, and a code that exists because of the potential for ruining friendships and destroying long held trust between girls who've been together long before any boy came on the scene. I'm staunchly on the side of "if your best friend dated him, he's off limits forever" position.

In this novel, Scott makes Brianna so bad that it sort of ends up justifying Sarah's cheating on her friend and taking her boyfriend. And why, if Ryan did like Sarah so much, did he go out with Brianna in the first place AND why didn't he break up with her long before the 2 month anniversary. His total passivity and weakness make him a totally unappealing male character -- what? he can't help himself when enveloped into Brianna's life? Please. It's insulting to teenage boys everywhere -- they can't choose who they go out with and they go out with a girl when they like another?

I think the author took liberties with an old tired plot line -- and I was sorely disappointed in this totally predictable teen romance novel that rationalizes and excuses dishonest behavior. I think that the discriminating young adult novel reader will see through this thin device and the "happy ending" that has broken an "unwritten rule"...I would still advise girls to stay away from their best friend's boyfriend.

Let me know what you think!!

Ms C.

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Disappointing and leaves room for yet another installment..., March 30, 2010

This review is from: This World We Live In (The Last Survivors, Book 3) (Hardcover)

I was really excited to be offered this novel for review having read both Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone (The Last Survivors, Book 2) as soon as they were released. I was very disappointed in this book and found it unsatisfying. Not so much a conclusion as just another part of a series that should have ended with this third book.

I love an apocalyptic novel. I had really liked the first one I read, Life As We Knew It, and although slightly unimpressed with the companion novel, The Dead and the Gone, I did hope for some sort of culmination as the characters from both books met up and interacted in Howell. In the first place, there really isn't much backstory so unless you've read both prior books you will be somewhat lost as this third story begins.

Miranda and Alex and their families try to forge a sort of existence in Howell a year after the meteor collided with the moon. Their continuing struggle for food and survival fills page after page of this book. All try to be hopeful about an uncertain future and each makes choices and decisions that alter the course of their existence. Yet another calamity occurs toward the end of this book and it seems that the band of remaining survivors will move on to find a more suitable place to live.

All in all the book left me unsatisfied and irritated. I can see room for yet another in the series and am disappointed about that. I doubt I will read the next book. This series was called "action-packed, thrilling and utterly terrifying" but I think that each successive book lost those characteristics.

Borrow, don't buy.

Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder

Saving each other, a sweet ghost story..., March 2, 2010

Teen girls and reluctant readers will enjoy this book written in free verse. The sparse language and lack of descriptive detail keep the story moving forward and also bring out the emotions experienced by the characters in a more stark manner than does the typical novel written in prose.

This story, told in alternating voices, is about Brooklyn and Nico -- both are being "haunted" and experience visions and visits. Nico by Brooklyn's boyfriend and his brother Lucca and she by Lucca's friend Gabe. The two boys are dead -- Lucca in a car wreck and Gabe a suicide. Both are trying to pass along an important message to Brooklyn and Nico -- to choose life instead of wallowing in solitude and despair.

Although a bit contrived and predictable, the journey that each takes is a bittersweet effort to reconnect with friends and family. Brooklyn and Nico learn that the path to happiness involves making choices to stay involved and active in the world without staying constantly in the past. It's about getting over a terrific and horrible loss, and somehow finding peace and the desire to go on despite the pain and grief.

Recommended for high school libraries.

Ms C.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

A bit of a new twist on werewolf lore, August 30, 2009

I confess, I read the reviews on this book before I started reading it so I was perhaps expecting it to be a bit "more" of everything because of the high ratings it was given. My analysis after finishing: the story was a predictable and contrived, somewhat interesting but finally merely banal. I thought it was a little better than OK and I would recommend it to any teen girl who likes reading werewolf stories or sweet, paranormal romance. The tale involves a girl named Grace who falls in love with a werewolf named Sam. They can't be together while he is animal, but for a time they share human love during the waning days of summer and throughout some of autumn in Minnesota. Supposedly it is cold weather and climate changes that make the wolves turn from animal to human and vice versa.

That said, my main problem with the plot is that so many questions are left unanswered and left dangling at the end of the book. We are also given a trite explanation for Grace's continued human existence despite the fact that she was bitten by a wolf. The characters -- mostly wolves -- are stereotypical good guys and bad guys. Not much depth of character development there. Except of course for Sam who is the lovesick wolf, the "best" of the pack.

Now I must say that the part that bugged me most about the book, however, was the complete absence of adults in the lives of almost all of the teens in this novel. I realize that there are parents who are self absorbed, but I think the author of this tale got a little carried away and made them completely worthy of a visit by the local child protective services. Not only were they physically not present in their homes much, but they didn't interact with their children nor were they consulted when events transpired that might have necessitated a legal guardian being available. It just didn't ring true but then again, this wasn't probably meant to be realistic fiction -- more like fantasy!

Although not my cup of tea, I think the intended audience -- teen-aged girls -- will probably like this book a lot. The chasteness of the relationship between Grace and Sam, the longing and angst over their too short period of togetherness, will appeal to those who like that tension and who hope for a happy ending with true love conquering all.

Ms C.

To tell the truth...

The challenge: Micah wants to tell you the truth. She really does. Problem is, she's a self confessed liar. She lies about everything -- big things and small things. Deliberate wild lies -- like the time she told her classmates she was an hermaphrodite -- or when she pretended for two days that she was really a boy. She tells little white lies and and then admits to lies of omission. So what's the reader to think?

This is a wild story with an evolving narrative that is half revelation, half concealment. Is Micah to be trusted as she tells us what happened to her 'after hours boyfriend' Zach? Can we believe her when she describes her childhood and the strange events that shape her life and make her into what she is? Are we sure that things happened as she says they did? What of her parents? her friends? her favorite teacher?

I think teens will really enjoy this very fast-paced novel with some surprises and some "gotcha" moments along the way. Can't say much more without revealing a spoiler or two. Let's just say, the questions mount and some of the answers may perplex you.

Mature themes and content.

Ms C.