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Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
I was really lucky with high school. Lucky, because my class was only about 120 kids, and we all knew each other. Then I went to a high school in a different state for senior year in a class of about a thousand kids, and I got to see first hand what real cliques were like. When I went to that new high school I became an Invisible, as Mackenzie Wellesley describes in Awkward. I like to think I wasn't as bad as she was, at least, and I got along just fine with the jocks or nerds or whomever when I had cause to talk to them. I was content being an invisible as long as people left me alone. So when I read a book like Awkward, I sort of get what the unpopular high school kids are going through, though I can usually only sympathize with them at best.
Awkward excelled at punching me in the face with what life would be like as a girl like Mackenzie, who was not only an invisible at her school, but totally...well, awkward.
I can't even deal with how much second hand embarrassment I got from Mackenzie as I read, but after the first few ordeals it actually began to be charming. It was just another part of Mackenzie as I got to know her, and I really began to love her. She's a fantastic character, and it's great to watch her evolution as a person as the novel goes on. It's especially great to see her pull up her big girl panties in the last third of the book and become the sort of girl she wants to be. She's still a babbly, awkward mess, but she's taken control of her life and her choices, and it's awesome to watch.
The romance was actually quite adorable, and I loved Logan. Mackenzie's friends were great (loved the LGBT inclusion, yay!). And while I felt parts of the book were very self-indulgent (friends with rock stars who she records a song with, a whole segment of her on the Ellen DeGeneres show, etc) they didn't take away from my feelings on the book as a whole, which were positive. I read Awkward in one delightful two hour sitting, and I don't regret it one bit.
P.S. Awkward is not even a real word to me anymore after writing this review. Awkward awkward awkward awkward awkward. Such a strange sounding word. Awwwwwkwaaaaaard.
I was really lucky with high school. Lucky, because my class was only about 120 kids, and we all knew each other. Then I went to a high school in a different state for senior year in a class of about a thousand kids, and I got to see first hand what real cliques were like. When I went to that new high school I became an Invisible, as Mackenzie Wellesley describes in Awkward. I like to think I wasn't as bad as she was, at least, and I got along just fine with the jocks or nerds or whomever when I had cause to talk to them. I was content being an invisible as long as people left me alone. So when I read a book like Awkward, I sort of get what the unpopular high school kids are going through, though I can usually only sympathize with them at best.
Awkward excelled at punching me in the face with what life would be like as a girl like Mackenzie, who was not only an invisible at her school, but totally...well, awkward.
I can't even deal with how much second hand embarrassment I got from Mackenzie as I read, but after the first few ordeals it actually began to be charming. It was just another part of Mackenzie as I got to know her, and I really began to love her. She's a fantastic character, and it's great to watch her evolution as a person as the novel goes on. It's especially great to see her pull up her big girl panties in the last third of the book and become the sort of girl she wants to be. She's still a babbly, awkward mess, but she's taken control of her life and her choices, and it's awesome to watch.
The romance was actually quite adorable, and I loved Logan. Mackenzie's friends were great (loved the LGBT inclusion, yay!). And while I felt parts of the book were very self-indulgent (friends with rock stars who she records a song with, a whole segment of her on the Ellen DeGeneres show, etc) they didn't take away from my feelings on the book as a whole, which were positive. I read Awkward in one delightful two hour sitting, and I don't regret it one bit.
P.S. Awkward is not even a real word to me anymore after writing this review. Awkward awkward awkward awkward awkward. Such a strange sounding word. Awwwwwkwaaaaaard.
Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
Deadly Cool is one of those light, easily read YA novels that always seem to go down quickly and disappear from your mind a week after you're done. Hartley Featherstone (I know, what a name) refuses to do that, and remains a kick-ass, smart heroine for the YA set. While teen mysteries always have to take some liberties when it comes to teenagers solving murders and the like (it wouldn't be a great book if they actually told the police what they knew and let them solve it, would it?), it doesn't feel like the adults are made out to be idiots, nor are the teens super sleuths after working only a few hours.
Hartley is an incredibly likeable protagonist, and it's great to see the feelings she's at war with as she investigates a murder on behalf of her cheating ex-boyfriend. She's never stupid about it, nor does she immediately fall into instaluv with the bad boy who helps her out. Everything is balanced and makes for a read without any of the YA trappings that annoy me to no end.
The mystery itself is pretty well done, and at the end of the day I found myself wishing I could be as awesome as Hartley is.
Deadly Cool is one of those light, easily read YA novels that always seem to go down quickly and disappear from your mind a week after you're done. Hartley Featherstone (I know, what a name) refuses to do that, and remains a kick-ass, smart heroine for the YA set. While teen mysteries always have to take some liberties when it comes to teenagers solving murders and the like (it wouldn't be a great book if they actually told the police what they knew and let them solve it, would it?), it doesn't feel like the adults are made out to be idiots, nor are the teens super sleuths after working only a few hours.
Hartley is an incredibly likeable protagonist, and it's great to see the feelings she's at war with as she investigates a murder on behalf of her cheating ex-boyfriend. She's never stupid about it, nor does she immediately fall into instaluv with the bad boy who helps her out. Everything is balanced and makes for a read without any of the YA trappings that annoy me to no end.
The mystery itself is pretty well done, and at the end of the day I found myself wishing I could be as awesome as Hartley is.
Review also posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
Sometimes I feel like I give a lot of dystopian YA fiction higher marks because I enjoy the genre so much, but Ship Breaker earns every bit of the high four star rating I've given it.
We're thrown right into this future world alongside Nailer, our hero, who does backbreaking, dangerous work for little gain. He's a fantastic teen to get to know, from his determination and goodness to his worries about becoming as bad a man as his father. Nothing about him is straightforward expect for his growing morality, and it's a joy to watch him navigate the world and to cheer him on from sequence to sequence.
There's plenty of action that, at times, make the book feel like it's moving at breakneck pace. The action is tempered by Nailer's characterization as well as the inclusion of Nita, a rich girl who may be the answer to all his problems. (And what of the inevitable romance, you ask? We go the entire book without one scene of instalove. Miracle of miracles.)
Along with Nailer and Nita are a fantastic cast of secondary characters, from Nailer's horrible father to a half-man (genetically modified human/canine hybrids), a ship's captain, and the crew Nailer works with and sees as family. Even if I didn't enjoy this genre and the constant action sequences, I'd be all over this book for the characters themselves.
Oh, OH, and my favorite part: the last quarter of the book turns into a sea battle like something out of a C.S. Forester novel. I have a great, great love for the Hornblower books, so anything resembling them gives me little thrills of delight.
Ship Breaker was all-around good fun, and if I didn't have a million books on my to-read list, I'd re-read it again right now.
Sometimes I feel like I give a lot of dystopian YA fiction higher marks because I enjoy the genre so much, but Ship Breaker earns every bit of the high four star rating I've given it.
We're thrown right into this future world alongside Nailer, our hero, who does backbreaking, dangerous work for little gain. He's a fantastic teen to get to know, from his determination and goodness to his worries about becoming as bad a man as his father. Nothing about him is straightforward expect for his growing morality, and it's a joy to watch him navigate the world and to cheer him on from sequence to sequence.
There's plenty of action that, at times, make the book feel like it's moving at breakneck pace. The action is tempered by Nailer's characterization as well as the inclusion of Nita, a rich girl who may be the answer to all his problems. (And what of the inevitable romance, you ask? We go the entire book without one scene of instalove. Miracle of miracles.)
Along with Nailer and Nita are a fantastic cast of secondary characters, from Nailer's horrible father to a half-man (genetically modified human/canine hybrids), a ship's captain, and the crew Nailer works with and sees as family. Even if I didn't enjoy this genre and the constant action sequences, I'd be all over this book for the characters themselves.
Oh, OH, and my favorite part: the last quarter of the book turns into a sea battle like something out of a C.S. Forester novel. I have a great, great love for the Hornblower books, so anything resembling them gives me little thrills of delight.
Ship Breaker was all-around good fun, and if I didn't have a million books on my to-read list, I'd re-read it again right now.
Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.
I'd heard so many good things about this book, and I was excited when I finally got it at the library. Though I had a vague impression of what the book was about, it turned out to be so much more, one that examines what it means to be human.
When Jenna Fox wakes up a year after a horrible accident, she has to piece together her life and figure out who she used to be and who she is now. It's her examination of her life and her family that really makes this book stand out among the YA sci-fi crowd. It's compelling, it's mysterious, it's heart breaking and hopeful all at once. Amazing, amazing, reading.
I'd heard so many good things about this book, and I was excited when I finally got it at the library. Though I had a vague impression of what the book was about, it turned out to be so much more, one that examines what it means to be human.
When Jenna Fox wakes up a year after a horrible accident, she has to piece together her life and figure out who she used to be and who she is now. It's her examination of her life and her family that really makes this book stand out among the YA sci-fi crowd. It's compelling, it's mysterious, it's heart breaking and hopeful all at once. Amazing, amazing, reading.