#9books9days

If you've been following our twitter (or our Facebook page), you might have noticed that I took a little trip!  And since I had nine relaxing days away from work, I decided to read nine books while I was away.

I'm only going to review seven of them today (you're going to have to wait until the end of the week when Alex and I do Bunnicula books), but I'm going to review the rest of them right here, right now, including TWO books that aren't out yet!!

Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld (Release date 9/29/15)

Really, did you expect a Westerfeld book to be bad?  Well, if you're waiting for one, this isn't it.  You have dynamic characters, who grow not only in their characters but in their powers too.  And you know what?  They pushed the envelope on what we think super heroes are.  We think of people with powers as either good or evil, but these kids?  They could really go either way.  And that's kind of what I love about this book.  At the end of the day, they're still just people.

Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman

This is one of Shusterman's earlier ones and, honestly, I was a little weary.  I had read Downsiders and had been a little disappointed, so I wasn't sure how I would feel.  the Unwind distology is a high bar to set, and some of his other writings hasn't met it.  However, Full Tilt isn't in that category.  It was gritty and in your face and really made you think about life.  It was this nice middle ground between Goosebumps and Fear Street.  Scary, but not so scary you had to put the book down.

The Lightning Thief Graphic Novel (Percy Jackson #1) by Rick Riordan

What is there to say about Percy Jackson that hasn't already been said?  Do I love him?  Of course I do.  Percy Jackson is one of my go to book series.  And, if your kid isn't big on the reading, I might direct you towards the Percy Jackson GNs.  Graphic Novels are great things, and I think they fill a certain niche.  But at the end of the day, this just doesn't even hold a candle to how good the first book was.

Poison by Sarah Pinborough

This one was the only real wildcard in my books this month.  All the other books were either ones I'd read before or by authors I adore.  Pinborough was the only author I knew nothing about, and really didn't know much about her books other than they were retellings of fairy tales.  But I like fairtale redos and the covers on her books look beautiful if nothing else (plus, I got them fairly cheap during employee appreciation.)

However, it was the biggest disappointment this week.  Really, Poison just ended up being the same old Snow White story we always knew, with a twist ending.  The only problem was that twist, wasn't really good enough to make up for the rest of the book.  Her writing was mediocre so, really, the book ends up just being something to look pretty on my shelf.

Sold by Patricia McCormack

I have found I have a love hate relationship with McCormack's book.  Some are AMAZING, some are... eh.  Some I think the topics are important, I think the execution just is a little wanky.  Sold I think falls into the last category.  It most definitely gets better as it goes along, but the beginning of it was just really slow and hard to get through (and not in the 'this is so terrible it's hard to read' kind of way.  In the 'this is kind of boring; please get to the story' kind of way.)  But once our main character had entered the brothel and we saw her deal with her life, her reality, and learn to make friends and negotiate her situation, I think that's where the real story came out.  So, good book, but one that you had to stick with to get there.

Rumble by Ellen Hopkins

I actually expected more out of this book.  That's not to say that I didn't like it, because I did.  I think I've just gotten used to the shock factor in her books and this wasn't one of those books.  BUT I will say that I really did like her approach to the ideas of religion and there being a God.  The main character of our book is an atheist, and there are varying degrees of religious belief all around him, from his overtly christian girlfriend, to his mildly religious aunt, who believes in a creator, but doesn't push it.  As usual, Hopkins hits those topics that people are afraid to talk about, like the idea of a creator, and how people believe, and THAT is what I liked about this book.

Another Day by David Levithan ( Release Date 8/25/15)

When I saw this sitting on the break room table just two days after David Levithan had posted a picture of the cover, words can not describe the excitement I felt.  Seriously, I was jumping up and down in our break room, I was so stoked (we hardly ever get ARCs that I TRULY want to read.)  And this book was every word as good as I thought that it would be.

Levithan really pushes the bounds of sexuality for us, really making us rethink what is male and female, gay, straight, does it even matter, if we're in love?  And I like that it's not a straight forward answer either.  A has been like that his whole life, but it's much harder for Rhiannon to get past the conventions.  Either way, Levithan construction a most wonderful love story that pulls at our heart strings.  I've been waiting for this book for years, and I was not disappointed for a moment.

Review me Twice - Butter by Erin Jade Lange

To be honest with you, I thought this book was going to be about anorexia, not about an overweight kid, but that's just because I didn't read the blurb on the back (I hardly ever do the weeks that Alex picks.  I like to be surprised.)

But to be honest, I think obesity, and how it effects the KID, should be addressed.  We're so concerned with kids and their weight and the health issues associated with it, we're not thinking about the kid, and what's going on with them, and how their being treated and if they're depressed and that maybe, just maybe, their obesity isn't just because they like to eat.

I think Lange does a good job of addressing the issue and really making a point, showing you the problems obese kids face, and showing you that they are people, just like everyone else.  Like most problem novels, she shows us something that we've known all along; kids are cruel.  Fall in with the wrong set of them, and they're only going to make your life worse.

I like the ending because while it does have a little bit of the "everything wrapped in a neat bow" ending, it also has a log of the "things are really still screwed up and not fixed."

Review Me Twice - Where She Went by Gayle Forman

I don't know if it's because I listened to the audiobook of this or if it's because I just don't REMEMBER that much of If I Stay (it was almost three years ago, after all) or if the writing just genuinely wasn't as good, but I really didn't enjoy Where She Went.

It was really obvious to me where the book was going to end up from page one, which was fine, because it's a teen romance novel, not a big deal, it's not like it takes a huge leap of the imagination to figure out what's going to happen.  But Adam is in this ridiculously depressive state, but it's not even a depression you can necessarily relate to.  You just kind of feel like he's whining and being emo.

And the writing just felt really cliche a lot of the time.  I felt like there were a lot of bad similes and metaphors throughout the entire book.  Jarringly bad ones, that would throw me out of the book.  It really felt more like she was trying to recreate If I Stay, which I remember having a little bit of magic, so maybe I forgave terrible metaphors a little more?  But it didn't have the same sort of feel to it.  It was just a rock star being sad because he lost his girlfriend three years ago.

I didn't listen to the audiobook like Cassy did, but I can only imagine it sounded like one long "Wahhhhhhh." Because oh my goodness can this narrator whine.

While I understand and empathize with real-life people who suffer from depression or are even just getting over a bad breakup, these are not the kinds of traits I want to see in a protagonist for an entire book. It can be part of the book... the journey to overcome depression makes a great story, but that's not what Adam is doing here. He's wallowing. Nobody wants 200+ pages of wallowing.

And the primary problem with If I Stay, which was that everyone's life (pre-car-accident, anyway) was so unbearably perfect, is still the case here. He's an overnight rock sensation with more money than you can shake a stick at (which is a weird thing to do to money, I think) and enough raw talent to fill several arenas. She's a cello prodigy who graduated early from Julliard and is embarking on her world tour of genius.

Review Me Twice - No Easy Way Out by Dayna Lorentz

This week, we're reviewing No Easy Way Out (the sequel to No Safety In Numbers).  Honestly, I'm really torn about these books.  I like the concept and the characters, and how they're getting gritty and everything is falling apart and people are turning back to their basic animalistic instincts.  It's all very Lord of the Flies (but with more technology... and with girls.)

But here's the thing.  It's all very drawn out.  Lorentz really, probably, could have put these two books into one book and it would have been fine.  Maybe even the third one too (I don't know; I haven't read it.)  Or, if not one book, definitely didn't need to split the books into more than two books.  Yes, book one had this awesome cliff hanger that made me love the whole book, but book two is turning into more teenage drama than a survival story, kind of turning me off to the whole thing.

Really, I think she needs to pick up the pace a little.  I'm supposed to feel panicked and scared, like her characters, and I really don't ever get to that point until I'm nearing the end of her books, which gives me the idea that maybe, she just needs to cut some of it out.

Cassy is absolutely right about the pacing problem. I put this book down when I finished and said aloud, "This woman didn't write three books. She wrote one really long book and someone told her she had to cut it into three parts." Which is precisely what happened to Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings books (they're three volumes of the same book, not three separate books) but these people have electronic key cards and a Senator, not Sting and Gandalf.

When we reviewed the first book, I said I didn't like how blase the adults all were about the kids running amok and doing as they pleased. That changes in this book, and I like the way it's handled (not as in, I approve of the behavior of the characters, but as in, this is interesting for me to read).

I definitely want to read the third book, if only because I've gone this far, and I want the ending. I also have a theory about the disease ravaging the mall (which I'm pretty sure is now two diseases because no flu in the world acts like what was happening there in the last few chapters) and I want to know how that pans out.

I like these books, but they aren't rereading material. And I reread most things, or would be willing to. It just takes a long time for things to happen (though, to Lorentz's credit, I said out loud at one point "something needs to happen soon or I'm going to fall asleep" and on the next page, something definitely happened).

Twelve Author Bios

This week, we actually have TWELVE authors, because we're reading a Christmas Anthology!!  So, I thought it might be fun to actually do a quick bio on each of them (and that means most of them will be almost directly copy and pasted from Goodreads.  So be prepared for that.)

Stephanie Perkins

Perkins writes novels for teens (and for adults who aren't afraid to admit that teen books are awesome). She was born in South Carolina, raised in Arizona, attended universities in San Francisco and Atlanta, and now lives in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.

Her best friend is her husband Jarrod. Their house is almost a hundred years old, and every room is painted a different color of the rainbow. They share it with a cat named Mr. Tumnus.

She's always worked with books—first as a bookseller, then as a librarian, and now as a novelist. On weekdays, you'll find her at her desk, typing away, downing cups of coffee and tea. On the weekend, you'll find her at the movies, waiting for the actors to kiss. She believes all novels and films should have more kissing.

Holly Black

Holly Black is a best-selling author of contemporary fantasy novels for kids, teens, and adults. She is the author of the Modern Faerie Tale series (Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside), The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), and The Good Neighbors graphic novels (with Ted Naifeh) The Poison Eaters and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction, and The Curse Worker series (White Cat, Red Glove, and Black Heart). She is also the co-editor of three anthologies, Geektastic (with Cecil Castellucci), Zombies vs. Unicorns (with Justine Larbalestier), and Welcome to Bordertown (with Ellen Kushner). Her most recent works are the middle grade novel, Doll Bones, and the dark fantasy stand-alone, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret library.

Ally Carter

Ally Carter is a writer living and working in the Midwest. She loved school so much she kept going...and going...and going...until finally she had to graduate. Now she has degrees from Oklahoma State University and Cornell University and a house and a job and other very grown-up things.

Her life is either very ordinary or the best deep-cover legend ever. She'd tell you more, but...well...you know...

Gayle Foreman

My name is Gayle Forman and I love to write young-adult novels. Because I do. So thank you for reading them. Because without you, it’d just be me. And the voices in my head.

Gayle Forman is an award-winning author and journalist whose articles have appeared in such publications asJane, Seventeen, Glamour, Elle, and The New York Times Magazine, to name just a few. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

Jenny Han

(Han like Han Solo, not Han like hand) was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She went to college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Go Heels!) and she went on to graduate school at the New School in New York City, where she received her MFA in Writing for Children. She lives in Brooklyn.  She is the author of To All The Boys I Have Loved Before and The Summer I Turned Pretty

David Levithan

David Levithan (born 1972) is an American children's book editor and award-winning author. He published his first YA book, Boy Meets Boy, in 2003. Levithan is also the founding editor of PUSH, a Young Adult imprint of Scholastic Press.

Kelly Link

Kelly Link is an American author of short stories born in 1969. Her stories might be described as slipstream or magic realism: sometimes a combination of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and realism.

Myra McEntire

Myra McEntire is an avid Doctor Who fan and will argue passionately about which incarnation is the best. She loves to search thrift stores for things to upcycle, as she’s a big believer in second chances. She lives with her two boys and husband near Nashville, Tennessee. Myra is the author of the Hourglass trilogy, which has been nominated for two RITAs and a YALSA Teen Top Ten, and was chosen as a SIBA Okra Pick. She’s currently contracted with Storybird, where she’s serializing a middle grade novel, called THE SHADOW GATE.

Matt De La Pena

Matt de la Peña is the author of five critically-acclaimed young adult novels—Ball Don't Lie, Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, I Will Save You and The Living—as well as the award-winning picture book A Nation’s Hope: The story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis. Matt received his MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and his BA from the University of the Pacific, where he attended school on a full athletic scholarship for basketball. de la Peña currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. He teaches creative writing and visits high schools and colleges throughout the country.

Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell writes books. Sometimes she writes about adults (ATTACHMENTS and LANDLINE). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (ELEANOR & PARK and FANGIRL). But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they're screwing up. And people who fall in love.

When she's not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don't really matter in the big scheme of things.

She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.

Laini Taylor

Hi there! I'm a writer of fantasy books for young people, but my books can be enjoyed by adults as well. My 'Dreamdark' books, Blackbringer (2007) and Silksinger (2009) are about faeries -- not dainty little flowery things, but warrior-faeries who battle devils. My first young adult book, Lips Touch, is a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award! It's creepy, sensual supernatural romance. . . about kissing. I am also an artist with a licensed gift product line called "Laini's Ladies."

Kiersten White

Hi! I'm the New York Times best-selling author of Paranormalcy and Supernaturally. I also give the most awkward hugs in the world. You should probably opt for one of my books over one of my hugs, but then again, maybe you like awkward hugs.

As for me, I like writing flirting scenes, and fighting scenes, and sometimes I write scenes that fall somewhere in between the two, but only if I can't avoid it.

And don't forget to enter our contest to win a signed copy of Unwind!!!

Review me Twice - Obsidian by Jennifer Armentrout

I have to give Armentrout her due on the aliens thing.  You don't see a whole lot of alien books these days.  It's all about the vampires and zombies or vampire zombies and the few books not about those two things are about pirates.  So I do like that she says, "hey, remember when we liked aliens?"

And I like that it throws back to Superman.  They have awesome powers and come from a far away exploded planet and they're just trying to make it work here on Earth.  Awesome concept, awesome ideas, and to be honest, the execution wasn't even that terrible.  There was a huge focus on friendship.  Dee and Katy are good friends and a lot of the story focuses on them.  Katy has NON alien friends that have their own personalities separate from aliens (who... just all happen to be perfect, which is a little irksome, but ok.)  So score one for people having descriptions and personalities.

However, it is a little... Twilight-esque.  Super hot aliens, specifically a super hot alien GUY telling human girl who, for some reason, he can't seem to stay away from, that she has to stay away from him and his family because they're no good for her.  Sound a little familiar?

There are some twists though.  For one, even though Katy likes Daemon (lead sexy alien male) she has a backbone and is not falling all over him ever second.  Armentrout WRITES pretty decently.  I won't say well, but enough that I don't hate it.  And the book ended in a little bit of suspense.  Enough that I might, one day, pick up the second book.

I love that sometimes Cassy and I share a brain. This book is Twilight with aliens. For those of you who actually read/watched Twilight, remember how Edward is a complete jerk to begin with? (Presumably in the name of protecting the weak squishy human female from his big scary life.) That's the entire beginning of Obsidian. But Cassy's right... Katy holds her own (though she's kind of a jerk in return) so it's a little better. I just feel like the first couple chapters are a thesaurus exercise, finding as many ways to call him a jerk without swearing.

I made the mistake of leaving town without bringing the book with me, so I couldn't finish it, so I can't speak to a large part of the book, but after you muddle through the beginning, the pace picks up a little and it's much easier to read. I probably won't pick up the next book unless Cassy tells me we're reviewing it, but I have a solid idea of the kind of library patron I might want to recommend the series to.

Review Me Twice: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

This week's review book, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, was number three on the ALA's list of most frequently banned/challenged books in 2012 (out of 464 challenges reported). The reasons given for its challenges were drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited to age group. (You'll notice that the first two reasons wouldn't be relevant if it weren't for the fourth reason.)

Let's address the "reasons why" (ha, see what I did there?) this book was banned/challenged first. I'm a little offended that the sexual assault wasn't mentioned, but "sexually explicit" was. That bothers me. But that's not the book's fault; that's the fault of someone who didn't want other people to read this book because they're afraid of it.

I really like this book. I like the way it's set up. Clay gets a box of cassette tapes in the mail and they were made by the girl at school who killed herself. They're being sent to all thirteen people she deems - in some part - responsible for her suicide. It's different and interesting (and it knows that cassettes are outdated... it's kind of a plot point that he needs to find a way to listen to the tapes.)

I'm about to get hypocritical here, so get ready. Remember how, with The Fault in Our Stars, I didn't like the characters because I thought they were smug and self-centered and that sort of ruined the book for me? Well, I don't really like Hannah in this book. At first, you think, "Oh, poor girl, she was bullied and assaulted and used and she reached a breaking point and saw no other way out." But later, I can't help but be a little mad at her. Some of her "reasons" are a little tenuous and the tapes seem to be more like her playing with flies in a web than anything else. The difference, though? I don't believe that Jay Asher idolizes her like John Green idolizes his characters.

Another weird comparison to The Fault in Our Stars that I noticed? I cry at this book (same place, every time) but not TFioS. But as we know from that review, I might be the only person in the world who doesn't.

I really disliked Hannah in the book.  She gives these tapes to all these people, blaming them for her suicide, for what happened to her, and never once takes responsibility for what she has done in her own life.  She never once takes responsibility for what's going on in school and around her and with her friends and family.  She claims that no one cares about her, no one wants to reach out and help her, but when Clay tries, she pushes him away as hard as she possibly can.

And I think Hannah kind of ruined the book for me.  Because I really did like Clay and the fact that he had to listen to these tapes and share her journey.  I really like that Asher opens your eyes about all the things that are going on in this high school, and they're all real, scary things that happen in the real world.  Rape, and ruined reputations, and bullying.  It all happens, every day, in high school and more often than not gets swept under the rug.

But I think I just got so annoyed and put off by Hannah, it distracted me from how good the rest of the book was.

Favorite Literary Bullies

This week's book is quite clearly about a bully. Her name is right there in the title: Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. So this week, we're picking our favorite bullies from books.

Draco Malfoy was the very first character I thought about when I tried to come up with my favorite bully from a book. Then I considered some others (The Chocolate War, and Thirteen Reasons Why - but probably not for the reasons you think) but I don't LIKE them as much as I like Draco.

One thing I really love about the Harry Potter books is that, by the end, there is really only one bad guy, and if you have a big enough heart, you can even see that Voldemort was only a victim of circumstances and bad decisions. But the two characters you've hated since the beginning, Draco and Snape, become lovable. Did you ever think, back in the late 1990s, that you would wind up feeling such pity for Draco? By the end, you can go back and look at everything he ever did in the books and see exactly why. Just watch him in the last book/movie, making the hardest choice of his life, picking between his parents AND Voldemort - who hand-picked him for an extremely high honor and difficult task - and doing the right thing. I'm just so proud of him.

You might wonder why I chose Draco and not Snape. I feel the same exact way about Snape, with one major difference. An adult, and more specifically an educator, - no matter how deep and painful their emotional wounds run - should know better than to treat a young student the way Snape treated Harry all those years.

I love Merteuil from Dangerous Liaisons.  I mean, how could you not?  She's a fantastic bully, mainly because half the time, you probably don't even realize that she' bullying you.  She manipulates and strategies and moves everyone around like pieces on a chess board and most of those pieces think she's their friends!

Really, it's only through her letters to Valmont that we realize what a bully she is.  She's retaliating through an innocent girl, completely ruining her life for no other reason than she feels she was slighted by a guy.  She's the ultimate bully, if you think about it, and, up until this point, has gotten away with it.

Review Me Twice - Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini

So, kind of an exciting book this week because... IT ISN'T OUT YET.  I know, how did we manage this?!  Well, because I work at a bookstore, publishers send us copies of books that haven't been released yet so that we will, potentially, read them and then tell the customers about them.

So this week's read, Trial by Fire, came in this epic looking box.  I mean, this think was tripped out in all of its marketing glory, and the summary looked marginally good, so I decided to grab it and then thought it would really be cool for Alex and I to read it for the blog before it came out.

I actually liked this book WAY more than I thought.  The thing about the Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) that we get at work is that about 85% of them are absolute crap.  And Trial by Fire looked like it could really go either way (the packaging really made it seem like it was overcompensating for something.)

But the world building was amazing.  Angelini really drew you in and created this great new place that was magical and wonderful.  She created a character that you loved.  Lily had the potential to be REALLY annoying, but she wasn't.  Her relationship with Rowan had the potential to be really annoying... but it wasn't (though, a little stereotypical I will admit.)  I like that for once it was free of love triangles.  I love that there was a legitimate REASON that Lily came incredibly quickly into her powers.  I like that there weren't big gaping plot holes.

And I liked that there was still a little bit of mystery left to the book.

Now, I'm not going to say everything was perfect.  There were still a lot of the same old tropes (IE the everyone loves the main character trope), but even they weren't so bad as they could have been.  Angelini seems to integrate them with her story very well so they don't stand out so much as to distract from the story.

This is definitely one to pick up when it comes out on September 3rd!

When Cassy told me we were going to read a book that wasn't even out yet, I was curious. I don't read a lot of ARCs, because I don't typically read books without knowing anything about them. ARCs usually don't even have a summary on the back, so all you have to go on is visual cues from the packaging and whatever the author has put up on their blog.

But like she said, this one was a really pleasant surprise. The world (both worlds, actually) is great. The characters act like real people, which is something that kept occurring to me throughout the story over and over.

One thing that worried me was the world switching. You start in present-ish-day here-and-now, and after less than 50 pages, you're in a totally new world with different characters, different rules, and when I realized this, I inwardly groaned. I gave it a chance: I thought maybe we'd be going back and forth between the worlds, and that's an excellent place to introduce the alternate one. But once it looked like we were stuck there for the duration, I rolled my eyes. I just figured out what was going on here in world number one! Now I have to start over? I've been reading for a few dozen pages; I don't want to feel like I've picked up another book. BUT! It actually picked up really quickly and didn't really feel that way. It worked perfectly.

I also cringed when I finished the book, put it down, and thought, "Oh. I guess that's going to be a trilogy." Then I put the book back in its pretty packaging and realized that the side of the packaging had said "Worldwalker Trilogy" the whole time, so I'm just not super observant sometimes. But even without that glaringly obvious indication that this will be a trilogy, the ending makes it very clear that you aren't done here and there will be more books. Which, once I reflected on it, will be kind of awesome. There are some aspects of both worlds that I would really like to hear more about. Bummer is, since we read it early, we have to wait even longer for the sequel.



HEY GUYS!  If you life in the DC Metro Area, Cassy is going to be writing book trivia for 94.7 Fresh FM. 

On Sept. 2, tune in at 7:30 AM for Can't Beat Kelly and you can hear some book trivia questions that she wrote!!  So tune into The Tommy Show.  You can also listen to it here!

Author Bio: Josephine Angelini

If you have your finger on the pulse of new YA fiction, you might be a little taken aback by the name you see in the title of today's post. "But wait," you might be saying to yourself, "Josephine Angelini's newest book comes out soon. Are you reviewing one of her older books?" No, friends, Cassy is just cool enough to have had access to an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of Trial by Fire, the new Angelini book, which will be available next Tuesday!

(Photo from http://www.josephineangelini.com/about/)

That beautiful lady up there is Josephine Angelini. She's already published a very successful YA trilogy called Starcrossed, about a girl with powers she didn't know she had until she met someone who could help her work it out. To oversimplify, that's also what the Worldwalker series (the one starting with this week's review book) is about.

Her website doesn't go into much detail about her personal life, and there is yet to be a Wikipedia page about her, so that's about all I can tell you. She's on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube, and she has a blog (there's a book trailer for Trial by Fire posted there today!).

If I Stay Signed Copy Giveaway!

Gayle Forman and Chloë Grace Moretz came to my mall awhile back and were signing ALL THE THINGS!!!  So, since I work at a bookstore, I bought a copy of the book to give to YOU readers and it's signed by BOTH Moretz and Forman!  EXCITING!!!

Why yes, that IS an actual copy of the book we're giving away.

This contest, though, we're going to make you really earn your contest entry.  We will be posting on the blog, as usual, and Facebook (as... mostly usual, though we've been less good about that as of late.)  You need to comment in one of those two places to enter.

So, rules:

- Your comments have to be at least two sentences long and something that might start a discussion.  "I liked this book.  It was good" does not count.  "I really like time travel sci-fi.  I think Octavia Butler is the best writer of our time" would count.  You're attempting to engage the opinions of others.

- You can not comment spam just to win.  However, if you end up engaging in a discussion with someone (including us), we will count each comment as an entry, as long as they abide by rule one and stay relevant to the post/discussion (if you start going off into a tangent about how hot Hugh Jackman is, I'll agree, but will no longer be counting your comments as entries.)

- Inevitably, all comments are up to our discretion if they are counted as entries or not.

- Comment has to be on a post within the last week (or so).  We're not going to go checking months and years worth of back posts just to see if you put a comment there.  Sorry.

- We will randomly pick a winner on August 22, 2014, the same day that the movie comes out!

- As per usual with these contest, contiguous US.  Sorry to all our international fans (and I know that we have a few.)  We just can't afford the shipping.  We will be shipping it USPS with no signature required.

- The winner must provide a valid address within one week of winning (that would be August 29).  Email us at reviewmetwice [at] gmail [dot] com.  If they do not, we will pick another winner.  If the SECOND winner does not claim it, we'll dispose of the book as we see fit (AKA I'll give it to my co-blogger or sell it on eBay.)

- Please keep it civil.  We love discussions on this page, and we're totally ok with disagreeing with people! (In fact, we think it makes it more interesting.)  However, if it starts to get inappropriate or mean-spirited, we reserve the right to moderate.  This applies to especially foul language, name calling, or anything else we deem to be really jerky.

Good luck!!

This is in no way endorsed by the movie, the actress, or the author.

Sex Scenes for Teens

When I first read this week's review book, Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, several years ago, I realized something about it... it contained the first gay sex scene I had ever read. (Granted, I had only read a handful of sex scenes in the first place, most of them from the Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel.) So I wanted to address sex in teen books this week, because that's what I think of when I think of this book.

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You know what's awkward for teens? Talking about sex. (Okay, that can be awkward for any age group.) You know what's a little less awkward? Reading about sex.

Think about it... you're a teenager, figuring out the whole "sex thing" from your equally clueless friends, euphemistic media examples, your parents' stuttering and mumbling about how you should practice safe sex, and weirdly omissive sex ed classes that mumble about how you shouldn't have sex at all. How are you supposed to sort out what really happens after the camera pans away and you hear bedsprings squeaking in whatever R-rated movie you happened to sneak into? (And don't tell me that porn will explain it to you... maybe some of the mechanics, but I hope you know better than to believe that most porn is a realistic depiction of a healthy sex life.)

Even worse, try being an LGBT teen. Sure, in recent years, it has been easier to find sex ed classes or counselors or even just friends who know more about sex between two men or two women or what kind of surgery transsexuals undergo, or any of the billion questions spilling out of that can of worms. But I probably don't have to tell you that it's dangerous in some places to come out, and asking questions about those things will out you if you aren't already out. Even in places where it's more accepted, it can be scary or embarrassing or just something you don't feel like everyone around you needs to know about. There are as many different experiences with this as there are people.

So where's a confused teen to turn? As is often the answer... well-written YA fiction. I'm not saying a novel should be a stand-in for good sex ed classes or mortifying heart-to-hearts with parents. I'm just saying, it's not really your mom's place to give you pointers on what to do with your hands when you're caught up in the moment, and it would be pretty awkward (borderline illegal, probably) for your health teacher to demonstrate interesting positions you might enjoy. (Side note: John Cleese is totally an exception. Totally NSFW; not for polite company.)

The neat thing about a lot of popular YA books is that teens really identify with them. They see bits and pieces of themselves and their friends and their families in the characters, and bits and pieces of their lives in the events of the books. So when they're reading about a character having a first sexual experience, or a fiftieth, or a new type thereof, they know they aren't alone. They aren't the only ones in the world who think they don't know what they're doing, or want something they think they shouldn't, or whatever their hangup is, even though it seems for all the world that they're alone, because nobody talks about these things.

It can be difficult to write sex scenes for adults, but for the most part, adults tend to know what to do and what they like and what they're willing to explore when it comes to sex. Teens are totally new to the topic and are just starting to consider options and learn about themselves in relation to others in this way. Which is why sex scenes for teens have to be so incredibly well-written. (It also helps to find a balance of detail to help the reader and discretion to keep it from being banned for being pornography, but if John Green's Looking for Alaska can be banned for the same reason because of a passage that includes "We didn't have sex. We never got naked." you probably don't have much of a shot at not getting banned if your characters are doing the deed.

So, teens looking for good sex scenes that will talk you through some anecdotal examples, try these out:

Before I Die by Jenny Downham (A terminally ill girl has a bucket list, at the top of which is to have sex.)

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan - this week's review book! (A totally inexperienced gay boy sleeps with his boyfriend, who is considerably more experienced.)

Bringing Up the Bones by Lara Zeises (After her boyfriend dies, the protagonist sleeps with a stranger.)

The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George (A totally-out lesbian and a closeted one meet in secret every week to make out.)

Doing It by Melvin Burgess (A boy desperately wants to lose his virginity.)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Not a huge fan of his main characters, but the sex scene... not bad. Really honest and, I don't know... normal. No stars-in-your-eyes stuff.)

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (Sorry to be a downer, but not all sex is consensual. The rape scene in this book is gut-wrenching enough to elicit the right emotional response, but not so much so that it's gratuitous. Having examples of rape is important in YA too, because non-experienced people might not even realize that what is happening to them is rape if they don't have solid, realistic examples to learn from.)

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer - No, seriously. (Really, I mean it. When Bella and Edward finally get down to business, it's not the worst sex scene I've ever read. Honestly. Just give it a shot. Really.)

So let the teens read sex scenes. You can't get an STD or get pregnant from a book, and it's one hell of a lot safer than letting them learn about sex by taking them to see 50 Shades of Grey in theaters.

What's your favorite book with a sex scene for teens? Let us know your recommendations!

If I Stay Meet and Greet

So, I'm late on posting today, and it's a busy week anyway, so I'm posting a picture of what I did today!!

That is Gayle Foreman, author of If I Stay (which we reviewed almost two years ago, because we're hipsters like that.), and the lead actress of the movie, Chloe Grace Moretz.  I got stuff signed by both of them!!

Sooooo, stick around for the movie coming out on August 22.  We just MIGHT be giving something special away. ;)

Author Bio: Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie Halse Anderson writes YA and youth fiction about hard-hitting issues. She is celebrated for her ability to face sensitive topics head-on without sounding preachy, didactic, or awkward. She accomplishes this real, honest voice by responding to every single message she gets from a teen (email, letter, whatever) and listening to what they tell her.

Speak (1999) (which you may recognize from the Kristen Stewart movie if not from the book) touches on several difficult topics, but centrally, rape. Wintergirls (2009) focuses on anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Even in her books that aren't problem novels, like her historical fiction novel Fever 1793 (2000) the protagonist has to deal with death and other issues.

This week's review book, The Impossible Knife of Memory (2014), deals with a parent who has post-traumatic stress disorder.

Review Me Twice: Wonder by R J Palacio

I had seen this cover before, but I had never thought about what the book might be about until Cassy selected it for us to review. And I'm so glad she did. It's about a kid, August, with Treacher-Collins syndrome (which basically means that his face looks very, very different from most people's faces) and how he deals with going to school for the first time.

I sobbed at one part this book. (If you've read it, I bet you can't guess at which part.) But I was totally entrenched in it throughout. I cared about the characters... more importantly, I cared about the protagonist. If you've been reading the blog carefully, you might know that I don't usually care about the protagonist; I'm more interested in side characters and sometimes villains. But August is a great protagonist.

And you might also recall that I'm not a huge fan of switching POVs throughout a book, but I love the way it happens here, because the characters are all interesting and unique and real.

I loved this book and I think it has a wide appeal: young people August's age; slightly older people (high schoolers) his sister Via's age; parents, whether they have a child with a syndrome/disorder/issue like August or not; people like me who had only heard of Treacher-Collins syndrome in passing and never really gave it much thought and had to look it up in Wikipedia to remember the name in order to review the book... everyone.

There are some books that just touch your heart, and Wonder is one of them.  Around Christmas, when I bought a pile of books from my job, I put this one on the pile just because I had seen so many people buy it, and so many people rave about it, so I figured, why not?

I love how Palacio shows us the extreme kindness of humans and the extreme prejudices of them all in one go.  And it's not just kids who are the hurtful ones.  In fact, it was usually the parents who were extremely more hurtful than the kids were.

I like, too, that it shows us that despite best intentions, not everyone is perfect.  Via is probably one of my favorite characters, because it shows that despite loving her brother, fiercely loving her brother, she's still affected by his condition, to the point that she needs an out from it.

Like Alex, usually POV shifts drive me crazy, but this one was very well done.  There were POV shifts, but not so many, nor so frequent, that it detracted from the story.  It was a perfect compliment to it.

This really is an all ages book, and it's a fairly fast (though heavy) read.  This is definitely in the top five of favorites for the year.

Review Me Twice: Friends With Boys

There isn't anything specific that I dislike about this book... I just don't seem to care about it. Does that make sense?

Graphic novels, as a genre, tend to have a problem with a lack of character development. You get a few characteristics (at least one of which will be a defining visual characteristic so you can quickly identify everyone on each page) and a handful of them probably get a lesson by the end like with most stories, but that's about all there is to them. You don't get a good sense of them as a person, unless you're reading a really good graphic novel. I don't think this is one of those really good graphic novels.

I felt a lot like this was the first of what is intended to be a series, but I don't see any evidence that it really is. It serves alright as an introduction to characters that could have further interactions, but unless I've got nothing to do for a weekend and the books are stacked up right next to me, I'm not pursuing it any further.

We all must know by now my feelings on graphic novels.  They're just not my particular cup of tea.  Which is fine, and this one is no different.  However, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it.

Maggie is our main character and has been home schooled for her entire life... with three older brothers.  I think that their relationship is really one that's indicative of brothers and sisters.  Yes, brothers can be jerks sometimes, but brothers always come through when you need them to.  Sometimes, they come to your aid even when you DON'T need them too.

I wasn't overly impressed with the artistry (everything had an anime type look to me, which made just about everyone in the book look Asian with their dark hair.  Especially Maggie with her pigtail buns.  I'm not sure if that was on purpose or just her style.)  The book was also kind of hit you over the head with "Be who you want to be and stop conforming."

I liked that Maggie made mistakes and was a very believable high school student.  She seemed to be the most socially awkward person ever, but still made friends.  (And not the Bella Swan amount of friends.)

I wasn't really sure why there was a ghost in the story, and it didn't really have a whole lot of bearing on her life.  It actually seemed to hardly affect her, so it seemed like the ghost was there more to just be like, "LOOK! SOMETHING DIFFERENT!!!".

Over all, the story was enjoyable, but nothing I would write home about.

Review Me Twice - The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

This book was an impulse buy for me a few months back.  I saw it on the shelf and the shiny cover, fun pictures and potentially awesome story line caught my attention and BAM!  Bought the book, which I don't do often when they're full priced and new in the store.

I didn't dislike the book.  I thought that the characters were interesting and engaging (especially Hatter Madigan.)  I like that Alice kind of got broken before she got to be the hero, that she was a little at odds with herself.  And the world that Beddor created, and how it interacted with our own world, was actually really fascinating.

But, at the end of the day, it wasn't anything spectacular.  Alice, the character, didn't become different enough to make me think of her separately from Carroll's Alice.  The differences were interesting, engaging, but not enough to blow me out of the water.  And, to be honest, Beddor's writing is just ok.  It's not bad, but it's not something that particularly stands out in my mind.

Overall, and interesting book, but not exactly a page turner, and probably not something I'll pick the sequel up to.  I mean, I MIGHT, but it took me a year to pick up the sequel to Cinder and I thought Cinder was fabulous.

I usually don't care much for things like this. A few clever changes to a classic don't really grab me. A total rewrite isn't so bad, though, and this feels more like that. You don't have to be particularly familiar with the original, but it helps. It's like a gritty reboot, but more kid-friendly (I'm not touting that as a good thing, just commenting).

It was good... but it wasn't great. I went in thinking, "This looks like yet another remake of Alice, but with those things from Star Wars, based on the cover art." I came out thinking, "That was better than I expected. Now, what am I supposed to read next?" I didn't have the moment where I put down the book in my lap after the last page and think, "good book." I was just... done.

Review Me Twice - Unremembered by Jessica Brody

Alex suggested our book this week, but, to be honest, I've been seeing it at my job for some time now and was always interested in it.  I'm glad she picked it and made me read it.

The book was actually very good, very imaginative, and very well paced.  As often happens in amnesia books, the exposition doesn't feel weird or out of place, because the main character is learning all of these things about themselves.

Sera (or Violet) is our main character and we realize from almost page one that she's is not quite like other kids (I mean, her eyes are purple, for goodness sake.)  And, as the book progresses, we learn more weird things about her.  Speaks multiple languages with ease, can run faster than any normal human should, can rip car doors off their hinges in a single push.

I won't give away too much, because I don't want to spoil the book, but you should know there is a big twist at the end and, for once, I didn't see it coming.

This was a good one and one that I think should be picked up.

Have you noticed that a lot of YA is about the big, scary organization experimenting on - or otherwise using for their own purposes which they claim to be for the good of everyone - young people? Yeah, me too. And you probably think I'm about to say that this is one of those books... but it's not. I mean, it is (that's a very vague description of its plot) but it doesn't feel like every other book like that.

Cassy and I were just saying last night that the Matched trilogy feels very "done," as in, I've seen this all before. This book does not feel "done" to me, although a few elements worried me when I first came across them ("oh no, this is going to be just like Maze Runner, Cinder, Matched, Twilight...") but none of them turned out to feel the same as the other books. Which is awesome.

So check this one out. It's fairly unique for YA fiction, it's compelling, and it's interesting.

Favorite Book with Amnesia

This week, we're reading Unremembered by Jessica Brody.  The whole book is about a girl who can't remember anything that's happened to her.  So today, we're going to tell you our favorite book where the characters lose their memory (I know; it's another one of those oddly specific days here at Review Me Twice.)

So, when I first saw this suggestion for favorites this week, I thought, "I have no freakin' clue!" and then two seconds later I thought, "Oh, wait, I know exactly what book I want."

We reviewed The Maze Runner not that long ago on here, so I won't go into it too much, but I just loved how Dashner used amnesia in this book.  It was a great way to get the reader to learn about things, because we were learning them at the exact same pace as our hero.  I loved that no one could remember who they were.  It wasn't just our main character: no one could remember anything about their lives before they came there, except for their names.

Also, it's SUPER EXCITING this book.  I mean, I blew through this book and loved it every step of the way.  There are very few books that Alex and I both absolutely rave about, but I definitely think this is one of them.

Dang, Cassy beat me to it. This is absolutely my favorite instance of amnesia in a book. Cassy even summed up my reasons perfectly: you get exposition without feeling like the author is giving you exposition, because the protagonist needs it too. He's just dropped into the middle of things (like you, the reader) and has no idea what's going on... he knows nothing beyond his own name.

I've read the trilogy (and still slogging my way through the prequel) and - I don't think this is spoilery, personally - the memory thing keeps going for a while, and doesn't get old. It progresses at a good pace in conjunction with the story. So the whole thing just works really well.