Girl, Unframed (2020)

 

By: Deb Caletti

Genre: Young Adult, Drama, Suspense

As fifteen-year-old Sydney Riley prepares to spend the summer with her starlet mother, Lila, in San Francisco, she has an uneasy feeling about what the months ahead will hold. Chalking it up to nerves due to the strained mother/daughter relationship as well as the anticipation of meeting Lila’s new boyfriend, Sydney makes the trip anyway. What lies before her in the coming months will be life-changing, making Sydney realize just how important listening to one’s instincts can be.

This novel was a bit rough for me and I had to take several breaks while reading it due to how triggering it was in some areas. It is basically the novelized version of this meme:

I was thirteen; sixteen the first time it got really scary. See the Everyday Sexism Project for real life examples.

From the outset Sydney is objectified by several men including Jake (Lila’s boyfriend), a young actor in his twenties named Jay, and Shane, a man of about thirty working construction on the house next door. There are also several instances where she has uncomfortable interactions with strange men in public, such as a flasher, a douche bag at a gas station and a creep in the park. The book, while documenting the events of Sydney’s summer overall, is a commentary on the sexual objectification of young girls and women. It is not comfortable, but it is very necessary and done considerably well.

Sydney navigates through these experiences as she goes about her summer, the events she encounters causing a dramatic coming-of-age by the final chapter. She juggles the toxic relationship with her mother, turning sixteen, first love, coming to terms with society’s bullshit standards of purity versus sexuality, and witnessing a violent death all in the span of a couple months. The fact that she is handling life as well as she is in the last couple chapters is incredible, to be honest. This is an eye-opening trip for her that leaves her much wiser at the expense of her girlhood and innocence.

“Give me back my girlhood

It was mine first”

- “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” by Taylor Swift

I really liked the characterization in this novel even if some of the characters are complete garbage. I loved Sydney and found her very relatable. I remember being the age she is during this narrative and learning the same hard lessons she does – older men can be really gross, the magazines geared toward young women do more to tear us down than build us up, and other media we consume has not-so-great messages regarding those assigned female at birth. The reader follows her as she matures, not just in age, but in wisdom as she learns these lessons and finds the strength to deal with the events that unfold over the course of the summer. Sydney is a smart girl and handles things surprisingly well considering everything that happens throughout the story.

One lesson I’m thankful she doesn’t have to learn is how awful first love can turn out to be. She meets Nicco, a cute, intelligent and sweet seventeen-year-old boy, and they hit it off fairly quickly. Nicco is probably the healthiest young adult love interest I’ve read about in recent memory – hell, maybe the healthiest love interest in general that I’ve read recently. He is responsible and treats Sydney with respect, never pushing her for more than she is ready for and even cautioning her that they should take it slow because ‘sex changes everything.’ He truly adores her and they have a cute game they use to communicate unique to only them. At seventeen he is the only male figure in her life that treats her well, which is sad, but also maybe a commentary on how the younger generations of teenage boys and men are trying to be better than those before them. I love them as a couple and was rooting for them to last throughout the novel.

Sydney’s mother, Lila Shore, is a Hollywood actress and fairly narcissistic. She puts everything before her daughter, especially her career, status and any man she is presently involved with, while simultaneously accusing Syd of being selfish and difficult. The fact that Lila has shipped Syd off to a boarding school in Seattle where her only guardian is her grandmother, Edwina (consequently, the only family member who seems to actually care about Syd’s well-being), and only sees her on the holidays shows how little she cares for her daughter. If that isn’t enough, their frequently strained interactions throughout the summer and her actions in the final weeks of Sydney’s visit prove it. Caletti does a great job of portraying the complicated nature of this kind of toxic relationship between a parent and child – depicting Syd’s conflicting feelings toward her mother, the love, the anger, the pity, the urge to protect and the yearning for a normal relationship between them. Sydney’s navigation through this relationship and ultimate decision regarding it at the end of the story is relatable, understandable and heart breaking. Sydney is the daughter of a narcissistic diva and a womanizing absentee piece of crap. She deserved better than either of her parents could/would ever give her.

The last major character to examine is Jake, Lila’s current beaux and an abusive, lecherous dumpster of a person. 

Jake poses as a real estate mogul and art collector, but it is pretty clear early on that he is into shady dealings. From the minute he meets Sydney he’s touching her and making her uncomfortable. He pressures her for a hug when she’s never met him before, grabs her knee while they’re driving in his car, and makes comments like, “you look a lot older,” while appraising her in a way that makes her feel he’s staring at her breasts. (As someone who has had a large bust since age twelve and has heard this comment and experienced this look many times, he was DEFINITELY looking at her chest.)

Jake’s behavior toward Sydney only gets progressively creepier as the story moves forward. He alternates between trying to be the “cool adult” to gain her affections (taking her out driving at high speed in his Lamborghini, pretending to respect her opinion on art, siding with her in arguments with her mother) verging on grooming behavior, to trying to control her sexuality (getting upset about her dating Nicco, getting furious over her getting a hickey, calling her a slut and roughly manhandling her after catching her being intimate with Nicco). He claims he is looking out for her but he’s obviously got ulterior motives and it’s disgusting.

“Jake and me and sex – he didn’t care about me taking a big step, or getting STDs, or using contraception. He was guarding my virtue, like my body and spirit would spoil if I were touched. Like my body was his. To leer at and to control.” (pg. 309)

This man rants about how Sydney needs to respect herself and acts like Nicco is a danger to her yet disregards her actual safety around those far more dangerous. He tells her “you can’t let that stuff get to you” regarding Sydney being flashed by some pervert on the street, to which she rightfully thinks, “He didn’t have to let that stuff get to him, because it would never happen to him.” (pg. 208) Jake also takes Sydney along on one of his shady deals and leaves her alone in a vehicle with one of his creepy associates that has been clearly leering at her. This is immediately after he went off about the hickey Nicco gave her. 

“’Jesus,’ His voice was full of disgust. ‘Is that a fucking monkey bite? Have you and that kid been fooling around?’” (No… a ‘monkey bite’ is whatever that weird knee grab was you did to her in the car when you first met. That mark on her neck is a hickey, also known as a love bite, and is a perfectly normal thing. Stop being weird about it, you sound jealous of a teenage boy.)

Heaven forbid a teenage girl makes out with her teenage boyfriend! The horror!

I hate this character, but he’s well written and exemplifies the insidious attitudes patriarchal society has toward young women. The interactions between Jake and Sydney depict how confusing, twisted and dangerous these attitudes truly are. They make men feel like they are entitled to women and make women feel either like a silenced object to be looked at and preyed upon or like they have to conform in order to protect themselves and be accepted. The effect they have on women is heavily felt by Sydney:

“… I felt pissed. The world hadn’t changed and this made me so angry. It was the same as it had been for hundreds and hundreds of years, and this filled me with fury. I was angry at the paintings of women who were only bodies, who had faces with blank eyes and no mouths. I was angry at R. W. Wright, and his sexy, punished girls, and men who leered, and boys who grabbed, and the gaze, the gaze, the gaze. I was furious at the dick flashers and violent men, the frauds, the thieves. I was pissed at how beauty was some highly prized commodity – sold and sought and viciously envied, made to feel shameful. Pissed at the guardians of your virginity who were as much creepers and controllers as creepers and controllers.

“And I was furious at the mothers who encouraged you to be sexy but not have sex, and ladies’ man fathers, who flirted with waitresses and treated you like another unseen girl, because who were you supposed to be, then? The you in the middle of all of this. The hopeful you, the wanting you, the you with dreams, the unsteady you, the you that wants to feel everything but isn’t allowed to, who doesn’t know what to make of this mess, and how could you?

“… I made a decision, because our eyes do see, our mouths do speak, and we are not objects. I am not.

“The women of my family, going back generations – we’d been told lies about ourselves that we believed, and we’d even gone on to tell each other those same lies. I could maybe put an end to that particular plotline.” (pg. 353)

“This would be an ending where I listened to myself and used my voice, no matter what the world said back.” (pg. 349)

I found this book powerful and enthralling, if a bit triggering at times. The heroine is relatable and sympathetic. She becomes stronger despite all she has to deal with and learns how to stand up for herself despite her fears. Her romantic relationship is healthy and adorable. The plot even takes a few turns I wasn’t quite expecting. The social commentary regarding lecherous attitudes towards girls and young women is heavily woven throughout and will make many uncomfortable, but it is a discussion we need to be having.

8/10

For my commentary/reactions as I progressed through this novel, as well as to keep up with what I'm currently reading, feel free to visit and/or follow me on Goodreads. 

Bag of Bones (1998)

by: Stephen King

Genre: Horror, Drama, Supernatural

Four years after the sudden death of his beloved wife, Jo, suspense novelist Michael Noonan returns to their summer home on Dark Score Lake. Upon arriving in the small Maine town, Mike finds he may not be alone in the lakeside retreat known as Sara Laughs. He hears phantom crying in the night, receives messages on his refrigerator, and has ghostly encounters in his dreams. After a chance encounter with young, twenty-one-year-old Mattie Devore and her three-year-old daughter, Kyra, Mike finds himself dragged into the middle of a custody battle, both by Mattie's ill-intentioned father-in-law and the spirits of Sara Laughs. What secrets does Dark Score Lake hold and why do the spirits want him to help Mattie?

I enjoyed this novel. While it has horror aspects in relation to the hauntings and the evil within some human beings, the story focuses more on the character development and relationships. For the first two thirds of the novel, the main focus is Mike's battle with writer's block, his grief over the loss of his wife, and the custody battle between Mattie and Max Devore. The more involved Mike becomes, the more he begins to fall for Mattie and seems to step easily into the father figure role when spending time with Kyra. The ghostly happenings serve as a connection between them, and it isn't until tragedy strikes that the horror really begins.

The characters are well-rounded and fleshed out, they have histories and unique characteristics. The good guys are relatable and likeable, while the villains are truly twisted and evil. Mike serves as a great narrator, he's relatable, intelligent and witty, with a softer side he's not afraid to show. He decides to help Mattie when the rest of the town has turned against her. He's so good with Kyra, and despite the age gap, the reader ends up wanting him and Mattie to end up together.  Mattie Devore seems like a fun and loving mother, who is doing everything she can to raise a toddler on her own. She doesn't trust easily and does not like to accept charity from anyone. She is clearly being persecuted by Max for no good reason and it's hard not to love her or her adorable daughter Kyra. These three are the center focus of the story, and while the rest of the characters were well-written, these three are the ones that stand out.

A key theme in this novel is the enduring bonds of love; bonds that last long after death. This theme keeps Jo alive, despite her death in chapter 1, and enables her to protect Mike as he comes closer to revealing the dark secrets of TR-90. However, hate and rage can also create bonds that endure through death and generations, and this powerfully negative energy is exactly what Jo is determined to protect Mike from.  

At first the only negative energy Mike has to deal with is in human form as Max Devore harasses and even assaults him when he gets in the way of Max getting custody of Kyra. The scene where Max and Rogette, two seemingly unlikely assailants have Mike trapped out in the lake, attempting to drown him, is one that had me clinging to my book, unable to put it down until I knew he was safe. This scene is the turning point for the novel, and the suspense continues until the final act. As the human behavior becomes more violent, the paranormal activity inside Sara Laughs intensifies, and as the novel reaches its climax, the reader follows  Mike as he puts together the connection between the haunting of Sara Laughs and the happenings in the lives of Mattie and Kyra Devore.

I really did enjoy this novel and loved the combination of ghost story and the fairly accurate portrayal of a custody battle. I felt for the characters and fell in love with them, especially Mattie, Mike, Jo and Kyra. However, it did lag a little in the middle of the novel before picking up speed again, so that may deter a few readers. Curious to see how it ended, however, I plugged through and ended up with a fairly satisfying ending. My only other complaint is that we don't find out what happened to Romeo Bissonette and George Kennedy after they both incur wounds in a shoot out. As their wounds didn't appear fatal, the reader can assume they made it out okay, but it still would be nice to know for sure.

Overall, despite a couple minor draw backs, this is a decent, entertaining read, delving more into human relationships than the horror aspects of the haunting of Sara Laughs. If you're looking for a lot of scares, this novel may not be for you. However, if you enjoy lots of suspense and character development, and don't mind that the ghostly activity takes a backseat to human interaction, you may enjoy this book as much as I did. This book is as much about the evil that lies in the hearts of humanity as it is about the dangers of the paranormal world.

6.5/10

The Caster Chronicles (2009-2012)

Beautiful Creatures (2009)
Book #1

By: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Genre: Young Adult, Supernatural Romance, Drama

Sixteen-year-old Ethan Wate thinks nothing would ever change in the small town of Gatlin, South Carolina. That is until Lena Duchannes moves into town, and Ethan’s world is flipped upside down. He finds himself instantly connected to this mysterious beauty, and as the two grow closer, he learns more than he bargained for: about her, about Gatlin, and even his own family. I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did. I only looked into it after finding out that one of my favorite actors is playing Larkin in the film adaptation. I thought it seemed a little Twilight-ish, and while there are some similarities, I found this book far more enjoyable.

As far as the similarities with Twilight are concerned, it’s a supernatural romance, only this time it’s the new girl in town who has the supernatural abilities, rather than the boy. Like Edward in Twilight, Lena tries to avoid a relationship with Ethan because she fears for his safety. Also like Edward, she is a part of a family where each member has a distinct ability different from the rest. However that’s where the similarities end.

This book isn’t just about the romance between the two leads, it’s also about friendship, bullying, and bigotry. Lena is tortured by the kids at school because she is different and labeled as dangerous by the locals. Ethan loses most of his friends in defending and loving her – making him a strong and endearing character in my eyes. He has a sense of himself and sticks to his beliefs of right and wrong despite what the people around him say and do. I’m glad the authors chose to tell the story from his perspective.

It took a while for Lena to grow on me because she was so closed off. We get to know her as Ethan does, and despite her early reservations we see her fall as much for him as he has for her. Their relationship is sweet and above all else, healthy. Neither one tries to control the other, and they work together to help solve the mysteries surrounding their connection and to keep her safe from what she ultimately fears – being claimed by the darkness.

Link is a true best friend to Ethan, never abandoning him, even when all of his other friends do. He accepts Lena as a friend and aids Ethan in defending her against the bullying students of their high school. Ridley, Lena’s cousin, is lovable despite the fact that she’s dark. She still seems to have feelings, at least for her cousin, despite the fact that once she was claimed by the darkness she wasn’t supposed to feel anything for anyone. She takes matters into her own hands when Lena wont, and her actions against the snotty popular girls are hilarious.

While the writing isn’t phenomenal, it’s decent. There were a few repeated details that weren’t necessary, like constantly telling the reader that Lena has green eyes, black curly hair that twists in a nonexistent wind, and is beautiful. The writers also had a way of making characters seemingly disappear in a scene, such as Larkin at the climax of the novel. There is so much focus on the main villain of the story that Larkin isn’t heard from for at least three pages even though he is also in the scene. I began to wonder where he was for a while. I did, however, like the homages to To Kill a Mockingbird and Carrie, both modern classics in my opinion.

The story was cute and a fun read. The characters all have distinct personalities and, if I didn’t love them right away, they grew on me as the story progressed – with the exception of the bullies and bigots in town, of course. Despite my reservations about reading this book, I enjoyed it, and am looking forward to getting my hands on the next entry in the series.

6.5/10

Beautiful Darkness (2010)
Book #2

By: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Genre: Young Adult, Supernatural Romance, Drama

Ethan thought everything would get back to normal after Lena’s sixteenth birthday, but all is not well in Gatlin. Lena is grieving over the loss of a loved one and has begun pushing Ethan away from her, getting dangerously close to turning Dark. When she runs off with Ridley and an incubus/caster hybrid named John, Ethan decides to go after her. She’s in danger, he can feel it, and it is up to him to save her, whether she wants to be saved or not.

I didn’t like this book as well as the first, mostly because of Lena. She was so mean to Ethan, a sweet, loving boy, utterly devoted to her, for most of the novel. She is nice to him one day, mean the next, she leaves him in the dust as she rides off on the back of John’s motorcycle, but throws a psychotic fit when he is tempted by the new girl in town, Liv. So it’s okay for her to dump him and run off with a strange guy, but he can’t be friends with Liv without her freaking out? The parts of the book that didn’t involve Lena, aside from the climax and everything following it, were the best scenes in the story.

I was a little irritated that Ethan was so strung out over Lena too. A lot of guys would have said, “Screw you, if you’re going to treat me like that!” He did feel that way at first, but he still wanted to try and save her, regardless of whether she was even still capable of loving him anymore. Lena was being so awful, I really wanted him to end up with Liv, who seems like a genuinely awesome character and who likes Ethan for who he is. I love Liv, and I hope she plays a big role in the following books of the series. Link is, as always, the loyal, goofy best friend, willing to do anything for Ethan, and still hoping he can find the good side of Ridley. Ridley, herself, goes through a bit of a transformation in this installment, so the future books of the series should be quite interesting.

I really liked that this book explored the underground Caster tunnels and revealed many secrets about Ethan’s family as well as Macon Ravenwood. The tunnels seem endless and you can make great time using them to get around, as time passes differently in the tunnels than the mortal realm. I found this exploration fun, and liked the events that happen along the way. Plenty of juicy secrets come to light and transitions made, lives forever changed with one journey.

The climactic scene could have been a little better. I was expecting quite a fight, but it was pretty uneventful. Also, Liv seems to disappear once the climax begins, because the authors no longer mention her, though I assume she was there the entire time. I know this is the story of Ethan and Lena’s romance, but don’t let your secondary characters fade away, especially one as sweet and fun as Liv. We get a brief mention of her current activities toward the end of the novel, so we can assume she made it through the fight okay, but otherwise, no Liv.

I don’t really understand why Larkin is even in this book. He is used so little, I don’t see his role necessary to the plot. He’s a powerful illusionist and very underused considering what he is capable of. I hope this isn’t his last hurrah. If so, his character has been cheated. Also, I wanted to see a bit more of Ethan’s relationship with his father and see how that is mending. Still, the end also left quite the cliffhanger, so I’ll be getting my hands on the next installment to find out what happens.

Overall, it’s decent, but not as good as the first entry due to aforementioned reasons. I hope these things are cleared up in the next two books in the series.

5.5/10

Beautiful Chaos (2011)
Book #3

By: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Genre: Young Adult, Supernatural Romance, Drama

Nothing in Gatlin has been the same since the events of the Seventeenth Moon. Lena Duchannes made a decision that changed the order of both the mortal and caster worlds and knocked everything off balance. Now the town is experiencing intense heat waves, insect infestation, and the evaporation of major water sources. It appears an apocalypse is near, and it is up to Ethan and Lena to stop it.

I think this entry is the most dramatic in the series thus-far. All the characters experience changes and have to grow in one way or another. Lena is no longer acting like an entitled little brat, learning to deal with the fact that Liv will always be a part of Ethan’s life, in one way or another. Liv has gone underground, spending most of her days in a study Macon set up for her in the tunnels, researching the supernatural events happening all over town. Ridley is trying to cope with life as a teenage girl at Jackson High and Link finds his newfound powers are good for more than just being a great basketball player and wooing the ladies. Ethan is just happy to have Lena back, but he is faced with much loss and many hard decisions.

I really liked the fact that we got to see Sarafine’s back story. As with the other novels, this one also contains flash backs, and Lena and Ethan witness Sarafine’s previous life, from her claiming until the day Lena’s father died. These scenes almost make the reader feel sympathy for Sarafine, but not enough to forgive her for the evil she has done, ultimately feeling the conflicting emotions that Lena, herself, is experiencing.

Amma has become more secretive and withdrawn. Her cooking isn’t as amazing as it used to be, she has been keeping things from Ethan that he should know, hiding out in her room, and delving into the darker side of voodoo. She has seen something in the cards that she will do anything to prevent from happening – including black magic.

John Breed actually gets a personality in this entry. He is no longer the annoying, girlfriend stealing, half-incubus. He actually seems to have a good heart and a desire to do the right thing – despite being raised by two evil incubi that want to destroy all mortals and casters alike. Ethan may hold a grudge, but Lena was equally as guilty, and there’s clearly more to John than there originally seemed.

I did have a good idea about the identity of “The One Who Is Two,” so that “twist” wasn’t much of a surprise to me. Also, I felt that the final fourth of the novel was a little inspired by the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It has an evil character named Angelus and requires a sacrifice to stop an impending apocalypse. I’m not saying it’s a rip-off, just that both things also existed in that season, and I found it amusing. Could Garcia and Stohl be fellow Buffy fans?

While this novel doesn’t have any scenes that really stand out in my mind, I am actually fine with that. I really liked that it dealt more with the relationships between the characters and less on major events, like fairs and dances. These relationships are the core of this story – Ethan’s love for Lena, for Amma, for his aunts and his friends – it all leads to an ending that makes me exclaim, “You can’t end it there!”

6/10

Beautiful Redemption (2012)
Book #4

By: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Genre: Young Adult, Supernatural Romance, Drama

It’s been months since Ethan took the plunge to correct the Order of Things and save his friends and loved ones from an impending apocalypse. He wakes up in the “Otherworld” where he has breakfast with his mother and can visit with Aunt Prue whenever he likes. However, he can’t shake the feeling that he is not supposed to be in the “Otherworld,” and he misses Lena terribly. He will do anything to find his way home again, and Lena will do anything to make that happen. They reach across the barriers in an attempt to bring him back to the world of the living.

This final entry in the Caster Chronicles series is mostly based around Ethan’s adventures in the “Otherworld,” and despite how interesting that sounds, the book falls into competition with Book Two as being the weakest in the series. I just couldn’t get behind his quest. Maybe it’s because I’ve been away from the series for too long, but I don’t find Ethan’s romance with Lena as engaging as I once did. I felt he disregarded his mother’s feelings when he decided he needed to go back to Lena – and it was all about Lena – not his father who has been living under a spell so he doesn’t realize Ethan has died, not even Amma who has raised him and saved him from trouble countless times. He does eventually admit that he is torn about leaving his mother and that he does want to be with his father and Amma again, but for the most part Lena is all he sees and all he thinks about.

Lena, back in the mortal world, isn’t much better. As Ethan communicates to her through the barrier between worlds, she becomes consumed in aiding his quest to come home. She is willing to trade John to Abraham in order to get her hands on an object Ethan needs. She also freaks out on Macon for “spying on her” and on John for leaving Liv a note about what he was about to do (give himself to Abraham in trade), when it ended up saving her butt in the end. Abraham would have killed her had Macon not shown up when he had, yet she pouts and whines when she should be thankful. Really, Lena, if you want your uncle to take you seriously, you need to stop acting like such a child and use some common sense!

Truthfully, I was more entertained by the romances between Link and Ridley and Liv and John. Liv and John are just adorable together, and probably the most normal couple out of the three in their group. Even though he is half caster/half incubus, he genuinely cares about her and would do anything to make her happy. Then there’s the volatile love/hate relationship that is Ridley and Link – who communicate in a series of half-hearted insults and can’t seem to get over each other. It also helped their relationship that Link proved himself to be quite the hero during the showdown with Abraham – taking him on mortal style and winning.

Two interesting characters were introduced in this entry – Obidias and Xavier. Both men had angered the Far Keep and had been severely punished – Obidias given snakes for a hand that routinely bite into his flesh, and Xavier turned into a monster and forced to guard the gates of the Great Keep. Both men greatly aid Ethan on his journey – Obidias telling him what he has to do to get home and Xavier aiding him in the final battle. I really liked Xavier and I was glad that I got to see a flashback into his life and how he became the way he did. I wish I could have learned more about Obidias – but he is only in the novel for one chapter.

The one character that was just plain irritating to me was Angelus – one of the Keepers. He is evil, yes, but he’s also whiney and prideful – hateful of the very race he sprung from. He is, after all, a mortal, yet he refuses to believe that is so when he has modified himself so much he no longer resembles one. Despite his evil experimentations and his enslavement of dark casters for his own amusement, he still comes off more pathetic than villainous in his final confrontation with Ethan. I, for one, couldn’t wait for his character to be killed off, because he was more annoying than anything. Abraham Ravenwood was a legitimate villain; this guy was a prideful weakling riding on Abraham’s coattails.

I didn’t feel any real suspense. I knew that Ethan was most likely going to return to Lena, but I also didn’t really care that much if he did. I wanted to spend more time with his mother and get to know her character, as she has played a very pivotal role in the series despite being dead. It was also nice to finally meet the Greats that Amma always communicates with, but they also only get a chapter where they help Ethan and send him on his way – I still never really got to know any of them and I would have liked to. They have also served a large role in the series, and I felt they could have been given a little more face time.

The story in this one didn’t pull me in like the rest did. There was a cool new world to explore, but it wasn’t really plotted out very well – unlike the numerous tunnels in Books Two and Three. It is all about Ethan and Lena, and getting them back together again. Beyond that, nothing seems to matter, and that made it rather mundane to me. So much more could have been explored in dealing with the afterlife, yet so little was done, and I found myself rather bored and wishing the plot would just move along already. Characters with promise are underused, Ethan and Lena are both rather whiney and ungrateful, and the main villain is just irritating. I was hoping for a better finale.

5/10

The Series Overall: This is a cute supernatural romance series, but it does have its weak points – mostly Books Two and Four. Book One, Beautiful Creatures, introduces us to the characters and places them in regular high school situations that all readers can identify with. Many female readers can sympathize with Lena – most girls have been targets of girl-on-girl bullying at one time or another, and I know I would have loved to have my own personal Ridley by my side in Middle School. That sympathy for her and the fact that Ethan seems like such a great guy make the supernatural elements easier to digest. Book Three, Beautiful Chaos, is focused more on the development of these characters. Books Two and Four portray them at their most selfish and annoying – and that gets old quickly, but at least Book Two, Beautiful Darkness, explored the caster world in depth and revealed more about Ethan’s family that was completely unexpected.

My final ranking for the Series: 6/10

Speak (1999)

By: Laurie Halse Anderson

Genre: Young Adult, Drama, Finding yourself

Melinda Sordino used to have a pretty good life. She got good grades, had a tight-knit group of friends, and was often invited to fun events. All of that changed the summer between middle school and high school, and now she enters ninth grade with no friends, a bad case of depression and a secret she can’t tell anyone. Her friends think she’s a narc, her parents think she’s grasping for attention, but no one asks her why she’s become this way. Melinda finds herself slipping into silence, and only her art can help her find her voice.

Melinda is a great character – I loved her sarcastic, cynical wit when describing things around her. Her quips are intelligent and funny, even if they come from a depressed mind. She has lost interest in school, except in the one subject that she can use as her outlet – art. I could feel her helplessness – she wants to tell her secret but doesn’t feel like anyone will believe her. Her friends won’t give her the time of day and her parents are never around – and when they are, it only seems to be to yell at her or each other.

I honestly couldn’t stand Melinda’s parents. The only time her father seemed to talk to her was to bellow about her poor grades. Occasionally he does something nice like get doughnuts on Thanksgiving or invite her to the hardware store with him, but for the most part he ignores her. Her mother isn’t much better – working long hours as a retail store manager, she doesn’t seem to have time for Melinda’s “cries for attention.” That is literally what she calls it when she sees that Melinda has self-cut, and promptly ignores her again. Excuse me, you’re not a bit concerned about why your daughter is cutting? Do neither of you see this downward spiral as something out of character for Melinda, someone who only months before was a solid student with a decent social life?  No friends, bad grades, sleeping all the time, cutting – these are signs she needs help, not to be yelled at by two half-wits who only seem to worry about how she’s making them look.

Her only friend for the first half of the book is Heather, a bubbly new girl full of school spirit and longing to belong somewhere. She tries to get Melinda involved, but mostly just uses her until she finds a better group of friends. Also, the girl has some anger management issues. However, I don’t think Melinda should have written off Ivy and Nicole so quickly. While neither of them hung around her specifically, they were never mean to her the way Rachel and other students were. I’m glad she and Ivy began to bond toward the end of the novel, and I think that Nicole would have talked to Melinda if Melinda had approached her. It is, of course, understandable why she was afraid to do so.

As far as the rest of the characters go, few stand out. David Petrakis is her nerdy lab partner who isn’t afraid to stand up to their bigoted history teacher, Mr. Neck (Melinda’s nickname for the teacher, real last name unknown.) Mr. Neck is one of those people who never should have ended up in charge of students. He’s a control freak douche bag who loves to push his weight around. Yet the school board allows him to get away with his antics (probably because he’s a coach for one of the sports teams) but harasses Mr. Freeman for using too much of the budget on art supplies. Mr. Freeman is the only teacher that seems to respect his students and encourage them to grow and find themselves. All the others – Mr. Neck and Hairwoman (English) especially – seem to try and squish the creativity right out of these kids, turning them into mindless drones like everyone else. It is Mr. Freeman who believes in Melinda and encourages her transformation as the book wears on. Her struggles with her art mirror her struggles with herself and the need to find her voice.

Melinda’s secret is revealed about halfway through the novel, but I had already seen the film, so I knew what it was. Anderson holds the suspense for a while, but I don’t think it’s hard to figure out with the hints dropped by Melinda. What happened to her is awful, and the fact that she had no one to confide in makes this novel heartbreaking in places.

My only real problem with the novel is the ending. We never find out if her parents learn what really happened to her that summer. I’m sure they did, but I would have liked to see how that happened and if they felt guilty at all for not realizing something was very wrong. We never find out if Andy is punished, and we never really find out if Melinda regains her friends and a happy social life. I would have liked to know how things ended up for her.

Overall, it was a quick, interesting read with a strong heroine and a compelling story. I just wish the ending had been expanded upon.

7/10

Admission (2009)

By: Jean Hanff Korelitz

Genre: Fiction, Drama, Romance, Self-Acceptance

“Admissions…Admission…Aren’t there two sides to the word? And two opposing sides…It’s what we let in, but it’s also what we let out.”

The above quote sums up the plot of this story nicely. The story follows Portia Nathan as she struggles with the changes in her life and confronts her past. Portia is an admissions officer for Princeton University, and as part of her job, she travels throughout New England, visiting many schools to recruit applicants. Upon visiting Quest, an experimental alternative education high school, she comes face to face with John Halsey, a man from her college years. The two spend an evening together, and upon returning home, her world seems to fall apart. Portia is forced on a journey of admission – admitting that her life may not be what she wants, admitting her past exists, and admitting the right people into her life.

Portia is a realistic heroine, but I often found it hard to understand her motivations. There are occasions where I can relate to her, such as her tendency to hold onto relationships when they are no longer working and a career she doesn't really enjoy. These things are safety nets and we all have one thing we can't release, even when it's long past time to do so. However, I can't understand why she refuses to let anyone in - not her mother, who may be a bit overbearing in her radical feminism; and not her friend Rachel, who is there for her, trying to get Portia to talk to her. Portia can only seem to open up to men - to John and to Mark - never the women in her life that care so much for her.

I don't really understand why Portia and her mother have such a strained relationship. Susannah may be a bit eccentric, but her heart is in the right place, and she managed to raise Portia single-handedly. She may have some radical ideas and stick to her opinions no matter the evidence against them, but she loves Portia and wants a relationship with her - something Portia doesn't seem capable of giving to her. The two may not see eye to eye, but it's obvious that Susannah would do anything to ensure Portia's happiness. It aggravated me that Portia, at thirty-eight, was treating her mother with the disdain of a teenager.

Some of this treatment is slightly explained in Part III of the novel, when Portia admits the long-harbored secret from her past. She took care of her issue all on her own, never telling anyone because she didn't want to accept this change in her life. Even though she knew her mother would help her, she didn't want it. She gives no explanation for why, and I found it hard to understand her reasoning.

She makes a lot of decisions I do not understand - not involving her mother when her past issue arose, and the decision she made towards the end of the novel that put her career in jeopardy. Was it really worth it? I suppose, but I could never do what she did.

She also tends to go catatonic whenever a man leaves her. It's like she's in shock and doesn't know how to handle this abandonment, It happens both with her college boyfriend, Tom, as well as her live-in boyfriend of sixteen years, Mark. Her pain is certainly understandable, but she just drags herself away from the world, avoiding everyone who could help. It proves how little self-esteem she truly has and sometimes a character like that is hard to read about. I would have liked to see that she got some help for what is clearly a form of clinical depression, but sadly, that does not occur. Being so down that you let your laundry pile up, rarely bathe, hardly eat, and immerse yourself in work is terribly unhealthy, and while I was glad she was able to gradually work herself out of it, I still feel that she needs to seek professional help for it.

I do like that the book promotes a healthy romance. When she is with John their interactions are cute and respectful of one another. They laugh and tease each other, have intellectual and meaningful conversations, and don't flip out on one another for stupid reasons. She is able to be herself around him and he loves her for exactly who she is - he always has. For once, the man is waiting for the woman to decide she wants the relationship, silently pining, but not letting it consume him. Also, I like that the romance is not the central focus of the novel - Portia's character growth is. Both she and John continue their normal lives, even though something is clearly developing between them. It is a relationship I found myself rooting for because I knew that John would be good for her.

I do feel that the book suffers a lot from extensive exposition. There are many times that I found myself getting lost in thought and losing my place. Not everything needs to be given so much explanation. Let it unfold naturally. I don't need to know every last detail. There are also points of redundancy, such as in mid-conversation: "He laughed. He said, 'I'm on my way.'" Couldn't it have just been, "He laughed, 'I'm on my way.'"? I think most readers get that he is responding to her with that alone. I don't think the "he said" is necessary. Lastly, there are a few name mix-ups in the final fourth of the novel - something an editor should have caught. The rest of the novel is pristine and error free, but those name mix-ups are jarring.

Overall, it is a decent read, but I probably won't revisit it. Portia is a very real character, even if she isn't always relatable or likable. The romance is cute and understated; a simple factor in Portia's journey to self-acceptance - something she desperately needs.

6.5/10

Saving Zoe (2007)

By: Alyson Noel

Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Drama

Brainy and shy, fifteen-year-old Echo is entering high school and beginning to navigate the ups and downs of being a teenager. However, she is also dealing with something few of her classmates will ever have to: the grisly murder of her older sister Zoe. When Zoe’s boyfriend Marc gives Echo Zoe’s diary, she discovers who her sister really was and gets to know the real Zoe.

This novel was rather disappointing to me. From the description on the back of the book, I gathered that Echo and Marc would be using the diary to solve Zoe’s murder which wasn’t the case at all. Zoe’s murderer is known from the beginning and is already sitting in jail awaiting trial. The murder itself is brushed over as some insignificant detail – we never really find out how Zoe was killed or the name of the killer. I would have thought that Echo would be carrying a large amount of hatred for the man that ripped her sister away from her, but he is hardly mentioned at all. 

This is strictly the story of how Echo comes to terms with her own thoughts and feelings about Zoe. I got the feeling that Echo was always living in her sister’s shadow because Zoe was the pretty, bubbly, popular one who always had friends and boys around her. Echo was the quiet, brainy one who did well in school, never caused trouble, and often spent time with her parents. After Zoe’s death, it seems like the light of her parents’ lives has gone out and all they are left with is Echo. I really wish Noel would have delved more into the psychological effects Zoe’s death had upon the family. I think that would have made a far more interesting story.

Once Echo begins to read Zoe’s diary, it is almost as if she wants to become Zoe – someone who honestly doesn’t seem like anyone to admire. Zoe cheated on her boyfriends, smoked weed, tried other drugs, had lots of sex, drank alcohol and posted skanky pictures of herself on the internet. She had an attitude problem and seemed to think her looks were everything. She dreamed of being an actress and model and idolized reality television stars. Zoe is everything I can’t stand about my generation.

The book is probably thirty to fifty percent excerpts from Zoe’s diary, most of which include her prattling on about inane things. The plot finally becomes interesting around chapter 30 when the events leading up to the murder unfold and Zoe makes a startling revelation about someone Echo knows. I wish this plot point had come up earlier in the novel because it was the best part of the entire story and actually had me wondering what Echo was going to do about it.

Echo and her sister are both annoying characters that make awful decisions that put them in harm’s way. When I wasn’t getting irritated with their foolish choices, I was groaning at the lack of vocabulary these girls seem to have. Apparently, in Noel’s eyes, all teenage girls talk like the stereotypical dumb cheerleader: “Like, totally!” The word “totally” is over-used, to the point where I wanted to find the author and slap her upside the head. Use a different adverb already! “I was totally shaking,” “I was so totally angry,” We get it! Even Echo, who is supposedly a bookworm, speaks this way. Maybe its a Southern California thing (the author lives there), but when I was the age of the characters in the novel I never talked like that and didn’t know a single person that did. I also went to high school around the same time this book was published. The poor vocabulary skills of these characters were so grating on my nerves and it reflects negatively on the author. Though, to be honest, I don’t think she is a very good writer in general.

In the end, I felt that the book was rather pointless. Nothing was really resolved, the grief of the characters still left very much unexplored, and the characters not developing at all.

Overall – the story had potential but it was bogged down by unlikeable characters and a very constricted “Valley Girl” vocabulary. It almost redeemed itself around chapter 30, but it was so close to the end of the book that it made little difference. Also, I wish it would have spent more time on the murder and how it affected the family. Considering the plotline, this novel could have been much better.

4.5/10