Review: Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

So many feels about this book! I will try and keep it as non-squealy and non-fangirly as possible, but it's hard because I loved this book SO, SO much. I usually fly through books, but with this one, I took it slow until the last hundred pages and I just couldn't stop reading. And I laughed and cried and everything in between. It was simply fantastic and beautifully written.

Saint Anything tells the story of Sydney Stanford, a 17-year old girl suffering through the guilt of her older brother Peyton's actions, whose fall from the popular and seemingly confident perfect guy, son and brother tears apart her family. In the aftermath of his prison sentencing, Sydney transfers to a public school from prep, meeting a new group of friends. She meets Laylah, the flighty best friend with a refined taste for French fries, and Mac, her dependable and sweet older brother in particular, who become a new family for her when her mom and dad are too preoccupied with Peyton to help and see her in the way she needs to be helped and seen.

There are no shortage of great things to say about this book, but I'll start with the characters. I LOVED all of the characters in this book. Sydney was a gorgeously voiced narrator. The way Dessen wrote it, I could feel her emotions as she struggled and those feelings came across as honest, raw and true. Sydney is the kind of character I think any reader can relate to because all of her emotions felt very human.

And then there were the Chatham's with their perfect mix of quirkiness, reliability and working class charm. The scene of the party at their house is one of my favorites because you can feel the love and sense of togetherness in that house radiate off the pages. I loved Mrs. Chatham and Rosie in particular, wishing there was just a little more of them in the book.

Mac is definitely in my top ten list of YA fiction crushes. He was just so sweet and so dependable, but also slightly flawed. You must read for this lovely, subtle and innocent romance. I don't want to give a thing away except that Dessen presents a teen romance that doesn't feel rushed or far fetched. It felt just right.

I don't give a lot of thought to likability to characters in my reviews. It's just not something I really care about when reading a book. I mean, I liked Mac and hated Mrs. Stanford and definitely felt those emotions as I was reading, but I was still able to appreciate their function within the narrative and it doesn't really affect my opinion of the story unless it's terribly distracting. I don't think an unlikable character ruins a book but I could see why some people might find Laylah a little unlikable and that interested me because I could see both sides of it. I'd be interested to see what other people think about her part in the story, so feel free to comment below.

I also really loved what Dessen did with themes of family and friendship in this novel. Dessen captures the fact that while family is still important to us as teenagers and when we are going through rough times, it is often the new friends and bonds we create during these times that carry us through. However, I also loved how the dynamics of Sydney's own family developed both with her parents and her incarcerated older brother. Very well done.

Overall, the plot felt tight. At times it was maybe a little unbelievable how much freedom Mrs. Stanford gave Sydney at some points in the middle, but overall Dessen succeeded at writing a story that flowed logically and pulled at each of my heartstrings. I cannot recommend this lovely, heartbreaking story enough. I don't give 5 out of 5 star reviews very often (only 10 or so ever) but this book certainly deserves it.

5 out of 5 stars

Review: Love and Profanity, Edited by Nick Healy

Happy Short Story Month everyone! (These are technically essays, but they read like short stories, so I'm counting it as my short story read for the month)

I picked up my copy of Love and Profanity: True, Tortured, Wild, Hilarious, and Intense Tales of Teenage Life at my local independent book store. Yay! And yeah, that's a ton of adjectives to have in a title, but the stories in this volume really lived up to it.

I'm not really a short story or an essay person, I'll be honest, so I was even more impressed that I really loved the stories here. It was interesting to see the real stories of childhood by some authors I recognized (namely Pete Hautman, who wrote several young adult novels I've enjoyed, and Jon Scieszka, who wrote my favorite picture book ever). Short stories don't fulfill my craving for longterm character growth and development and yet, I felt like I got a little taste of that growth and development in each of these stories in its own way.

The range of the stories was really impressive. This volume had everything from tales of bullying, triumph, sadness, joy and happiness. The order and separation of the stories made sense, which I've found to be a challenge in order short story collections that I've read.

There are forty-three stories in the volume, the longest only a couple of pages. They each offer a moment-long glimpse into the live of another person, another writer, another teen experience. At times the stories seemed to demand my complicity and other times they seemed wrongly voyeuristic, most so in the story "Saying Goodbye to Anna," the tale of a teen overcoming anorexia.

The writing styles also varied quite a bit. Some stories felt incomplete while others filled me with emotion, be it happiness or sadness. Some were eloquent, while others were gritty. They all felt to be a little bit nostalgic and most felt a little dated, but in a good way. The datedness and the fact that I could still relate to these stories made me feel like yes, there are some parts of the teen experience that are indeed universal, carrying across time and space.

I enjoyed seeing perspectives from a variety of types of writers: everything from bloggers to picture book writers to teen writers and everything in between. Finding this in the young adult section of a bookstore, I expected there to be more stories by teen writers I recognized, but I enjoyed looking up some of these authors after I finished the book.

Each story felt like a new experience, a new glimpse. And yet they were all threaded together into four parts and one cohesive volume. I would recommend this collection of diverse, vibrant stories to anyone who enjoys short stories or enjoys reading about teen life. Read for several stories about love, friendship, heartbreak, isolation and ultimately growing up.

4/5 stars

Review: Wildlife by Fiona Wood

Review of Wildlife by Fiona Wood

4/5 stars

Wildlife by Fiona Wood. Image from amazon.com

With the abundance of technology these days, it seems that books embracing the big outdoors and the impact of nature on the mind and body are becoming a rarity. However, every now and then, a story that embraces spending time outside and allowing drama to play out in the elements instead of within a traditional high school or a dystopian society emerges. Fiona Wood’s novel Wildlife does just that, creating a story that is simultaneously quirky, smartly written and wildly entertaining.

One of the novel’s biggest strengths, as well as one of its biggest weaknesses, were the characters. The novel is told from the alternating first person point of views of Lou, a girl trying to get over the tragic death of her boyfriend Fred, and Sibylla, a girl who is suffering the consequences of a perfume photo shoot that resulted in her face being plastered onto a giant billboard. The girls’ lives converge when they are assigned to the same cabin on the outdoor campus of their private high school, where they are required to spend a term in the great outdoors rather than the crowded city of Melbourne.

Lou and Sibylla are endearing, complex and funny characters that the reader will root for. Lou’s dry sense of humor will have readers snickering while some of Sibylla’s actions will have the reader wishing they could reach into the book and give her a shove in the right direction.

The drama and romance wasn’t overdone. Wood succeeded in creating a balance between steamy, outdoor romance and everyday teenage drama in a way that makes this book wildly enjoyable to read. Sibylla and Lou are a major piece of the puzzle leading to that success.

The secondary characters, however, felt flat and one-dimensional. Sibylla’s best friend Holly was the typical toxic best friend that you have to learn to grow away from. Her boyfriend Ben is the typical popular guy that the protagonist of teen novels often seems to end up with. Still, these characters were terrible and they certainly had their own humorous, touching or downright aggravating moments.

While Wood may have met difficulty in the department of secondary characters, her writing style was absolutely the strength of this novel. The way she was able to capture the inner voice of a fifteen-year-old girl, and the fifteen-year-old girl in all of us, was remarkable. First person perspective was used the way it was meant to. Readers will feel themselves experiencing everything that Lou and Sibylla are as they experience it. They will be just as surprised as the girls are at every turn in this twisting and suspenseful tale.

The setting was another fun element of this novel that simply worked well. Camp stories are common, but books that somehow manage to blend camp, the outdoors and high school together are a rarity. The setting of the outdoor campus almost feels like a character itself in this novel, one that manipulates and shapes the characters that the girls and their friends become by the end of the novel. It is also detailed, without being overdone.

Overall, Wildlife is a slightly bizarre mix of strained friendships, first loves, soul mates, the outdoors, and discovering yourself in an unfamiliar place. Yet, it works, and the result is an amazing YA contemporary novel. This book is for anyone who wants to escape to the bush of Australia for an afternoon and relive the way we fall in and out love, friendships and grief.

Review: Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

I know it's super early for this review, but hey, just spreading the word about an amazing book. I kept it spoiler free too, so enjoy! P.S. I read this book as part of Adi's arc tour, which was awesome!

Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid
Image from goodreads.com

High school is more full of clichés than it is with students. A lot of contemporary YA novels avoid these clichés like the plague while others mix them in naturalistically with a cast of characters on their own spectrum of cliché. In his upcoming novel Never Always Sometimes, which comes out on August 4th, author Adi Alsaid faces the clichés that define high school head on with an unforgettably quirky cast of characters and a meticulously defined setting.

Dave and Julia, the quintessential joined-at-the-hip best friend teen duo, write a list of things never to do in high school shortly before they become freshmen. When they re-discover the list towards the end of their senior year, they decide to complete the items on the list, embracing the ordinary things teenagers do instead of their usual isolated plans.

Dave is funny, insightful and real. He isn't just the typical guy following his eccentric best friend around like a puppy dog. He is open-minded, observant and smart. The first part of the novel, telling his side of the story in the third person (as the whole novel is) felt grounded, relaxed and intriguing. There were times where I laughed with him, felt his pain and wanted to shake him and yell, "STOP THAT!" But overall, he was relatable, mostly likable and felt like someone I would be interested getting to know in person. He held my interest and I was interested in his story because his thoughts felt real and I was emotionally invested in his longing for Julia from the very first page.

Speaking of Julia, she is a whirlwind of energy, passion and bright pink hair dye. By far my favorite character in the novel, she felt like the character with the most wit and the most to lose. The story of her mother and two dads was endearing. I saw a lot of myself in her, and I think anyone who has ever rebelled against their past, their present or their future will relate to her. Her banter was funny, her actions reckless. The parts with Mr. Marroney were by far my favorite. You'll have to read to find out what happens there. I don't want to spoil that.

I can see how she might not be the novel's most likable character, but she felt the most honestly written and real. The only problem I saw with her character is that it made Gretchen, who Dave meets at a party, and one of the other more developed characters, fall a little to the background. This isn't necessarily a problem, but it would have been nice to see her come through a little more.

The humor between Dave and Julia was excellently written. Alsaid is a master of writing easy-flowing dialogue that is smart, catchy and entertaining. Even the scenes that were the hardest to read because I was doubled over laughing or cringing from the consequences I knew were in the pages to come were well done. Alsaid's relaxed, modern style makes Never Always Sometimes a fun summer read, even as it raises difficult questions about the way we judge people and the emotions we feel in high school.

But perhaps my favorite part about this book was the setting. I haven't been to California before, but Alsaid's novel and his descriptions of the place, the sunsets, Dave and Julia's room, made me feel was there. Everything felt present, immediate and real in the novel. At times, it was the setting that was the driving force in keeping me turning the pages.

My only critique of this brilliantly written novel is that some of the loose ends in the plot left me wanting more. I wanted to know more about Julia's dads, what happened to her bizarrely fun mother, more about Dave's mother and his relationship with his dad. What ever happened to some of the kids at the party they went to? My other small concern was I thought the whole not dating your best friend line on the list would have been more of an issue from the very beginning. Still, it's an amazing story.

Never Always Sometimes is the perfect summer read. Since I loved Let's Get Lost and thought that was the perfect summer read last year, I was a little worried that I'd be disappointed. I wasn't, however, and whether or not you've read Let's Get Lost, Alsaid's new book is a great book that demands to be read on a late summer night. Whether you're in high school now, just graduated, in college or beyond, read this book and laugh and cry at the end like I did.

4.5 stars