Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers
Published by St. Martin’s Giffin, an imprint of Macmillan

Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, the group of girls at the very top of the social ladder at Hallowell High School. In fact, she was the best friend of the clique’s It girl, making her the second most popular girl in her high school. That is, until rumors began circulating that Regina messed around with said girl’s boyfriend – now she has been frozen out of the group, and is the target of some of the worst bullying and mind games the school has ever seen.

I’ve been hearing good things about Courtney Summers for quite some time now. It would be an understatement to say that I had high expectations going into Some Girls Are – I was honestly expecting to find a new favorite YA author, and thank goodness I actually did find such an amazing author in Courtney Summers!

This book is heartbreakingly realistic. I was not popular in high school (I wasn’t unpopular either, just somewhere in between), so I can’t say that I know what it feels like for Regina to be the coolest girl in school one day, and the most hated the next, but her pain came alive on the pages. I remember how certain people in high school were the targets of the bullying, and how horrifically they were treated by those “in charge” of the social hierarchy, and Summers portrayed this so well. What happened to Regina is sad but an unfortunate reality for many high school students.

Regina truly came alive on the page for me. She was real to me, and as I was reading the book I could completely understand her and empathize with what she was going through. The other characters were incredibly realistic, too.

It would be easy to read this novel and think that Regina deserved what she got, that because she spent so much time tormenting other students at the high school she deserved to be the outcast and feel what those students felt. But it’s impossible not to like Regina – she was just as scared as every other kid is in high school, only she was scared of falling from the top – and it happened to her. Nobody deserves the kind of treatment Regina has to deal with, and it is beyond heartbreaking to watch her suffer.

The one positive to what Regina goes through is that she is able to gain real understanding of the mistakes she’d made in her life. She ends up becoming friends with a boy she used to pick on, and while I don’t want to give anything away, this friendship is really a catalyst for her to explore who she is as a person, separate from the clique she thought she needed to be a part of.

This book truly touched me and I highly recommend it for fans of young adult novels. Courtney Summers is definitely an author I plan to watch.

Faith and Fiction Roundtable: Certain Women by Madeline L’Engle

Certain Women by Madeline L’Engle
Published by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins

David Wheaton has lived a long and interesting life as a well-respected American actor. He has been married eight times and has eleven children to show for it. But at 87 years old, David is on his death bed, and in his dying days he asks that his family members, most specifically his daughter Emma, surround him. The most prominent topic of discussion in these last days of David’s life is the role David always wanted to play but never got the opportunity to – that of King David (of Old Testament fame) and his many wives. As David Wheaton and his family explore the parallels between their lives and the lives of those in King David’s time, they also take another look through their shared past and at the events that shaped them all.

Over the past month of so, the members of The Faith and Fiction Roundtable have been reading and discussing Certain Women. This book has generated a ton of discussion, as we were pretty divided on how we felt about it, but I personally really enjoyed the novel.

It’s not often that I read a book that so clearly takes a story from the Bible and turns it on its head (Amy pointed out that The Red Tent is another example of this being done well, and I completely agree). One of the things that we discussed is how Certain Women really showed the King David story through the eyes of his wives and children, and that was one of the things that, I think, kept me turning the pages. It was done subtly, as the majority of the story was focused on the present-day David and his family, but so many of the events in their lives mirrored events in the Biblical story, and as these events were told from Emma’s perspective (David’s daughter), it forced the reader to look at the Biblical stories through a different lens. It really made me stop and think – these Biblical characters, they were real people, dealing with real situations, and this is what it might have been like for them.

The theme of forgiveness is one that stood out for me in the novel. There are some awful things that happen to this family – things that they do to one another, and also tragedies that they suffer through no fault of their own. They absolutely must forgive in order to heal from these painful parts of their lives. David’s wives must forgive him and his new wives in order to find peace for themselves (and it is clear when reading the book that the wives who are unable to forgive are also unable to find happiness). There is rape in this novel and a possible murder, both of which can be forgiven – and some characters do forgive, others do not.

All this forgiveness made me think about forgiveness in my own life. I know that forgiveness is something God tells us we must do, and yet I have to admit that I find it difficult sometimes, that to this day there are people in my past who have harmed me so deeply that I do not know if I will ever truly be able to forgive. But strangely enough, I was watching the Oprah show the other day (no talking bad about Oprah, people, I love her) and she was talking about forgiveness. She said something like (this isn’t exact but pretty close): “Forgiveness is letting go of the idea that the past could have been different.” That resonated with me so much because I was thinking about forgiveness at that moment, turning it around in my brain after reading Certain Women, and I think her saying that was exactly what I needed to hear.

So I am going to work harder to forgive. I am going to work harder at giving those feelings to God, to seeking out His grace when I’m having difficulty finding some of my own for those who have hurt me. I’m not talking little things here, I’m talking about those hurts that last a lifetime, but still – He wants me to forgive, he wants me to let go and surrender those feelings to him. And for my own self, I need to let go of the idea that the past could have been different.

Please check out the thoughts of the other Faith and Fiction Roundtable participants – these are some great people with very different responses to this novel. Visit them:

Book Hooked Blog, Books and Movies, Crazy for Books, Ignorant Historian, Linus’s Blanket, My Friend Amy, My Random Thoughts, One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books, Roving Reads, Semicolon, The 3 R’s Blog, Tina’s Book Reviews, Victorious Cafe, Word Lily

The Gospel of Anarchy by Justin Taylor

The Gospel of Anarchy by Justin Taylor
Published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

David’s life is pretty miserable. He has a job he detests, lives in a town he loathes, is incredibly lonely, and the major highlight of each of his days is watching porn. After just another crappy day, David runs into an old acquaintance who invites him to the punk house known as Fishgut, where no one works but everyone is happy, where sex is plentiful, and where most people spend their days in alcohol and drug induced states. Eventually David learns about a former Fishgut resident, Parker, an anarchist whose writings inspire David to begin an anarchy cult of his own.

I have to just come right out and say it: this book is incredibly strange. I wouldn’t have picked it up myself if I’d read a summary first, but I was intrigued by the cover and the title. To be completely honest, I didn’t really enjoy the experience of reading this novel, but it did have its bright spots which leads me to believe that other readers would enjoy it more than I.

The biggest issue I had with the book is that I found myself confused more often than not. The point of view switched around like crazy and I would find myself needing several pages to figure out what was going on after every change. The whole book had this hazy, dream-like feel to it (either dream-like or acid trip-like, I’m not too sure which) which was interesting but also caused me to lose focus very easily.

Also, I just plain didn’t like any of the characters. And I couldn’t relate to any of them either. I felt no connection with them, I honestly couldn’t have cared less what happened to them, they were just words on the page to me. And for me, that’s bad because I absolutely need some type of connection with the characters in a novel to enjoy said novel.

The writing in The Gospel of Anarchy was really beautiful, though, and the tense switching around thing would be kind of cool if you were able to follow it (most people probably would be, I clearly had difficulty). And just because I didn’t like the book doesn’t mean you won’t – Jen from Devourer of Books really liked it. Even though I didn’t enjoy this book, I will say that if you like creative novels with solid writing and don’t mind profanity when you read, you may want to give The Gospel of Anarchy a try.

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel
Published by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House
Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours

Henry found huge success with his first novel, and now, years later, he is having difficulty getting his publisher on board with his second novel. When a fan writes to him asking for assistance with his/her own writing, Henry decides to just visit this person at their place of work. This fan turns out also to be named Henry, is a taxidermist, and he asks Henry (the writer) for help with a play he’s writing. The play stars Beatrice and Virgil, a monkey and a donkey, and Henry soon becomes entranced by their story.

After loving Life of Pi when I read it years ago, I’ve been looking forward to reading Martel’s next novel, but when Beatrice and Virgil came out it received very mixed reviews from bloggers I quite respect. I put off reading it for a long time because I feared that I would be disappointed by it, but I knew eventually I would get to it so when the ladies at TLC Book Tours offered me a spot on this tour, I couldn’t pass it up.

Am I glad I read Beatrice and Virgil? Absolutely yes. Did I enjoy the novel? Honestly, I’m not sure. There were many aspects of the novel that enthralled me, but other things just made me angry. Allow me to begin with the positives.

First, the writing. Yann Martel definitely knows what he’s doing when it comes to putting together a sentence. As was the case with Life of Pi, I found myself captivated by loooong paragraphs just because of the beauty of how he wrote said paragraphs. The characters in this novel could have been talking about the most mundane topics (and at times, they were) yet I was still interested and engrossed because of the writing. For me, this is big.

Henry (the writer) I liked immediately. I actually loved the first half of the book because I sort of adored Henry. He is charming, in an awkward way, and loves his family so very much (he has a wife and daughter who are extremely minor characters in the novel), and I admired how he was willing to write a book that was so outside the box that nobody would publish it, even though he was incredibly talented and renowned.

I also liked the way the book was structured, with the story-within-a-story thing. Well, really it was a play that was within the story, but it was very effective. I was engrossed in the story of Beatrice and Virgil (the play) just as I was engrossed in the novel itself.

But here’s the tricky part, because the ending pretty much ruined the entire book for me. And now, a few days after finishing the book, I can look back and realize that the majority of the book was extremely good, and the writing was beautiful, and yes I liked it for the most part. But when I finished the book, I was so angry and hated the ending so much that I honestly thought I would write an extremely negative review. Now that it’s been a few days I can truthfully say that overall I enjoyed the book. But the ending? Horrible. And also, I hate when animals suffer unnecessary violence and/or death in books, so I’m mad at Yann Martel for that too.

So, overall, I loved the concept of Beatrice and Virgil and, for the most part, I was happy with the execution of it too. But there were a few things that really did not sit well with me and because of that I can’t wholeheartedly say I loved the book. I didn’t love it, I appreciated it, but with reservations. Still, I would recommend it because the writing is gorgeous and the concept is very interesting and creative. Just be prepared for Martel to shock you and possibly create anger too. A book that can create so many emotions in the reader, however, is always a good one to read and discuss. So read it, discuss, and tell me what you think!

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich
Published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins
Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours

Irene and her husband, Gil, are in quite the dysfunctional relationship. There is violence, too much drinking, and lots of deception. Irene even began keeping a secret diary in a safe-deposit box at the bank after she discovered that Gil reads her original diary. As their relationship deteriorates and spirals out of control, Irene and Gil fight to keep up appearances for their three young children, who are smarter than their parents think and are not at all fooled by the charade. Shadow Tag is the story of a family coming apart at the seams, and how each individual member of this family struggles to keep things together despite the odds against this.

Shadow Tag is an incredibly melancholy novel about one of the most destructive marriages I’ve ever seen in fiction. The life Irene and Gil have built together is actually a very depressing one – they are drunk more often than sober, they constantly threaten one another, Irene actively deceives Gil by writing lies into the diary he thinks is authentic, and Gil is frequently violent with Irene and the children. There really are very few bright spots in their marriage – in fact, as I was reading the book I found myself wondering how and why they got together in the first place.

I have to admit that there isn’t a whole lot about Shadow Tag I enjoyed. Erdrich is a master with words and that is about the best thing I can say about the novel – the writing really is very good. It was the writing, actually, that propelled me through the novel as the story itself didn’t do much for me; it was just too sad and depressing.

I was hoping that with a book like this, at least I would find the characters compelling. Unfortunately, that wasn’t exactly the case. I really felt for Irene, as she was in an absolutely horrific situation and felt she had no way out of her marriage, but at the same time I didn’t much like her. She had her own issues, granted her drinking was simply a way to cope with her disaster of a life, but she could have made changes and it somewhat got on my nerves that she was in this vicious cycle with Gil, unable but also unwilling to escape. Gil is an absolutely wretched character, he treats his family horribly, takes everyone for granted, and then threatens Irene that he’ll get full custody (due to her drinking) if she ever gets up the courage to leave him. Not one part of his personality did I enjoy. And the three kids – there was promise there, I did like them, but they weren’t enough of the story for me to really get to know them properly.

The ending was the type of ending that, as a reader I can somewhat appreciate (I usually enjoy a good twist), but also it just made me mad. I had so much hope for this family, especially by the end of the book, and then the ending happened. It was just really disappointing.

I guess what I’m saying is that I didn’t much like the book. It has its merits, for sure – the writing is number one in that list, and the story itself keeps the reader engaged the entire way through. But the novel itself was just much too depressing and sad for my tastes. With a book as melancholy as Shadow Tag, I personally need some hope sprinkled in somewhere and I simply did not find any. That being said, for the right reader this book could work perfectly, so don’t discount it just because it wasn’t for me. For sure there’s a lot to discuss here, so if you read it, I would recommend reading it with a group.

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Published by Dial, an imprint of Penguin

Seventeen-year-old Lennie’s older sister died, and now all anyone reacts to when they look at her or talk to her is the fact that Bailey is gone. People are awkward around Lennie, they treat her differently, and she doesn’t feel like she has anyone who will ever really understand what she is going through. Not her grandmother, not her uncle, not even Bailey’s fiance, Toby. A new boy in town awakens feeling sin Lennie she didn’t know she was capable of, but will she allow herself to feel joy? Or will her grief be too much to handle?

The Sky is Everywhere is such a beautiful, painful, heartfelt, and realistic story of a girl dealing with the kind of pain that most teenagers can’t imagine experiencing. Lennie is such an honest character and I really fell in love with her. She is feeling all these unfamiliar emotions – Bailey was not only her sister but also her best friend, her closest confidant, the only person in the world who Lennie felt really understood her. When she dies, Lennie is left feeling not only empty, but also scared, lost, completely alone, and like nothing in her life makes sense. She is unwilling to talk to her grandmother and uncle about her pain, and because she keeps it bottled up she becomes almost self-destructive.

Which brings us to Toby, Bailey’s fiance. Lennie ends up turning to Toby to help her through some of her feelings, and they end up starting something, um, inappropriate with one another. Add this to the fact that Lennie is starting a relationship with the new boy in town, Joe, and you have a recipe for disaster. I can’t say I enjoyed the “relationship” (it was really more like fooling around, not an actual relationship) between Lennie and Toby, and I have to admit that it frustrated me quite a bit. Lennie had this awesomely romantic, gorgeous boy falling in love with her (Joe) and she was pretty much ruining it by hooking up with Toby. I suppose it made sense given the fact that Toby was the only person who was closer to Bailey than Lennie was, but still… ugh.

Anyway, the love triangle does eventually sort itself out, and truthfully that aspect of the story is secondary to Lennie’s grieving. There is also a plot line about Lennie’s mother, who ran out on the girls when they were babies (hence them being raised by their grandmother), never to be seen again. Lennie wrestles with a lot of internal stuff trying to figure out if she wants to find her mother, learning from her grandmother what her mother is really like, and that kind of thing. I liked this story a lot and actually would have enjoyed more of it. It didn’t resolve itself like I had anticipated, which was slightly frustrating but also realistic given the other circumstances in the novel.

Overall, The Sky is Everywhere is a compelling, honest, and believable young adult novel about a girl trying to cope in the face of crushing grief. Lennie is an extremely sympathetic character who quickly wins over the reader. The writing is unflinchingly honest and the book itself is a winner for sure.

City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell

City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
Published by Henry Holt & Company, an imprint of Macmillan
Review copy provided by the publicist

Will Kiehn is beginning to plan out his future, one that consists of farming on his family’s  property in the Midwest, when he suddenly feels called by God to travel to China as a missionary. While on his journey to China, he meets fellow missionary and nurse Katherine, and they quickly fall in love and marry in China. City of Tranquil Light is the story of Will and Katherine’s lives in China, spanning the fifty or so years of their marriage and life together, and taking the reader on a historical, faith-driven journey.

City of Tranquil Light is an absolutely beautiful book. There’s no two ways about it – everything about this novel is simply gorgeous. The writing is lush, descriptive, and really made me feel like I was in China with Will and Katherine. The setting is such an integral part of the novel, and Caldwell so excellently captured what it must have felt like to live in this part of the country, in this time period. I cannot speak highly enough about her writing and the feelings she was able to evoke in me throughout the novel.

To be honest, I didn’t know much about this book before reading it (I was attracted to the cover and the historical-ness of it), and I had no idea how faith-based this novel is! You would think, well obviously it is, they are missionaries for goodness sakes! But I truly didn’t imagine what a huge part of the novel faith would be until I began reading it (and had sort of a “duh” moment). The truth is, everything about City of Tranquil Light is faith-driven. Will and Katherine are extremely faithful, God-loving people, and their mission in life is to bring Jesus to the people of China. Every decision they make in the novel is one they have prayed about, talked with God about, and finally came to a conclusion based on what He wants for their lives. When tragedy strikes in their lives they look to God to guide them through it and give them the strength they need to keep sharing His word. Will finds himself in some seriously sticky situations and in every single trying time, he talks about Jesus and thinks about Jesus and looks to Jesus for guidance. Without fail. It really was amazing and inspiring to read.

But let me be as clear as day on this one – you do NOT have to be a Christian to enjoy this book. Not by a long shot. This story is absolutely one to be enjoyed by all readers. While Will and Katherine’s faith is the center of their life, it is why they are in China, why they married one another, why they make virtually all of their decisions, at the heart of it this is a human story. It is a story about two people, in a foreign country, in a time in history when Americans didn’t spend much time in said country, just trying to figure things out. It is the story of their marriage, of their life together, and of the extreme difficulties they faced while trying to carry out what they believed to be their destiny. It is a beautiful story, a sad story, a heartwarming story, a story that is impossible to forget. So please do not discount City of Tranquil Light just because you are not a Christian.

I am, however, a Christian, and as a Jesus follower this book did a number on my heart. These characters just dealt with SO MUCH strife, so many hard times, so many things that I would never in a million years think I could get through. And while there were times that Will and Katherine found themselves questioning God’s plan, found themselves thinking maybe it was all too much, at the core of it they were faithful the whole way through. They saw the light through the darkness, the joy through the pain, and remained faithful to one another and to God despite everything. The pure illustration of faith in City of Tranquil Light is beyond inspiring. While I recommend this novel to everyone, I cannot more highly recommend it to you if you are a person of faith. There is no way that this book will not mean something to you – it is just that powerful, that good.

I am getting a little wordy here so allow me to stop and just encourage you to pick up City of Tranquil Light. Clearly, I loved it and it’s one of those novels that I think has something for everyone. So please read it, and let me know what you think.

These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf

These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf
Published by Mira, an imprint of Harlequin
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

When These Things Hidden begins, we meet Allison Glenn, who is just coming out of a five-year prison sentence for an unthinkable crime. Allison was the golden girl of her small town before being sent to prison, and the repercussions of what happened that fateful night have deeply affected her younger sister, Brynn. We also meet Claire, owner of a bookstore and mom to a delightful little boy, Joshua. And then there is Charm, a girl who grew up with Allison and Brynn and who still carries secrets of her own. Allison, Brynn, Claire, and Charm are all tied together in one major way, and when they figure out exactly how, years of secrets will finally be released.

I purposely tried to give a pretty vague summary of These Things Hidden because so many of the elements of the plot surprised me, and I liked it that way. This novel threw me for a loop in a lot of ways and when I finished, I was sort of in shock – in a good way. The story is much more complex than I had anticipated, and I felt that Gudenkauf crafted the plot of the novel extremely well.

These Things Hidden is told from alternating points of view between Allison, Claire, Charm and Brynn, and telling the story this way was extremely effective. It allowed each of the characters to win over the reader individually, while at the same time revealing their story in such a way that I had real difficulty putting the book down. These four women definitely captured my heart, and I was alternately annoyed with all of them and rooting for all of them at different points throughout the novel. For me, I can tell I’m enjoying a book when I feel deep sympathy for the characters, and that was definitely the case here.

I feel like I haven’t said anything here, but I honestly don’t want to say more because there’s just so much about this book that’s better left unsaid. I’ll just say that I was very impressed with this novel – the characters, the story, the writing, everything. I would definitely recommend These Things Hidden.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Published by HarperCollins

Samantha is one of the most popular girls in her high school. She is gorgeous, dating the hottest guy in her class, and she and her group of girlfriends can get away with just about anything. Until Friday, February 12, a day that should have been just another regular day in Sam’s perfect life, but instead turns out to be her last day on earth. But somehow, she wakes up after that horrible accident and gets the opportunity to live that day over again. She has a second chance, a chance to figure out how and why she died, and more importantly, come to an understanding of what really matters in this life she’s desperate to get back.

Before I Fall is an incredibly creative concept for a novel. Samantha lives out her last day alive not once, not twice, but seven times. And each time, she gets closer to the truth of what happened to her and why, and closer to realizing what the purpose of her second chance actually is. I thought going into the novel that reading about the same events over and over would get boring, but it really doesn’t. While the basics of each day are the same, Samantha learns so much each time that there are significant differences in each part of the book, making the story extremely compelling and compulsively readable. I honestly could not put this book down.

What’s interesting about this book is how unlikable Samantha is as a character, yet how much the reader can’t help but like her. She and her friends are truly the “mean girls” of their high school – the best parts of their day are when they have the opportunity to make someone else’s life miserable. Yet my heart broke for Samantha as she began to realize what she and her friends were really like, as she lived that last day over and over again, and she started to have remorse for many of her actions. She was so determined to make things right, to fix what she had broken, and it was heartbreaking to watch as she discovered that she simply wasn’t able to make everything better. For so many aspects of her life, it was just too late.

I was surprised by how much happened in this book, given that it was essentially the same events playing out seven times in a row. Samantha made real growth as a character throughout the book, and the shattering conclusion left me breathless. Before I Fall is a fantastic novel for teens, one I can’t help but highly recommend.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Published by Hyperion

Frankie Landau-Banks went through quite a few physical changes in the summer between her freshman and sophomore years at her elite boarding school. As a result of these changes, she’s caught the eye of the very popular and gorgeous Matthew, whom she soon begins dating. When she finds out that Matthew belongs to the secret society on campus – The Loyal Order of the Bassett Hounds – she becomes determined to learn more about the society and also become part of it. Problem is, it’s boys only, and Frankie doesn’t exactly fall into that category. So she embarks on a quest to become a part of the Bassett Hounds, no matter what it takes.

I’ve been anticipating reading The Disreputable History for as long as I can remember. I’ve been hearing such great things about this book for so long that I finally gave myself permission to just pick it up and give it a chance for myself.

And YAY for that because this book was everything I wanted it to be. This novel is fun, and funny, but it also has a lot more depth than I was expecting. Frankie is a person who does not believe in maintaining the status quo, at least not when the status quo is clearly beneficial for only the privileged few who get to enjoy the perks. This is a novel absolutely drenched in feminism, and I mean that in the best way possible. Frankie is not going to sit idly by, watching her male friends get to have all the fun, absolutely not. The fact that Frankie is smart, articulate, well-read, but also seeking Matthew’s approval is a perfect illustration of those of us women who have been there as teens. I would have loved this book when I was fifteen – I can’t say that I’m anywhere near as intelligent as Frankie is, but I certainly remember the feeling of wanting to be myself but also impress the boy I liked at the time – which could very well have meant dumbing myself down. It’s a terrible way to feel, and Frankie does such a fantastic job of illustrating the fact that teen girls can be intellectual, politically aware, and hilariously funny all at once.

Honestly, I loved everything about this novel. While the ending was difficult, and my heart just broke for Frankie, it was actually sort of perfect and the only ending that realistically fit in with the rest of the story. Frankie is one of my new favorite kick-ass heroines, and as soon as I closed the book I found myself wishing for a sequel so I could be a part of more of her adventures. Plus, The Disreputable History is just ripe with topics for discussion – it would make an excellent book club pick.

I cannot more highly recommend The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. I beyond loved this book, really and truly.