CBR VI # 3 - Messenger by Lois Lowry

This book is a more direct continuation of Gathering Blue.  Matt, Kira’s friend from Gathering Blue lived in the ghetto of Kira’s Tribe.  His parents were NOT nice. At the end of Gathering Blue, Matt had went with Kira’s father to live with him in The Village.  The Village was founded by people who are not welcome in their own villages.  Some travelled far and wide, some, like Kira’s father and Matt, came from just beyond the Forest.  Now this Village, this is Utopian.  Jonas, from The Giver, is the present “Leader” and resident wise man of the Village.  The Village is extremely peaceful with each person having their designation or their “true name”.  This is an echo of the Community where everyone is given their assignments when they turn 12.  But in the Village, naming seems more organic and benevolent.

Matt is living a pretty good life there.  He is far from his former wild self and is seemingly content and happy with Kira’s father and is hoping that he will soon be named “The Messenger”.  This is a job that he is already doing, in any case.  He delivers message far and wide, even beyond the mysterious forest which actually kills other people who have been living in the Village for long and dare to venture its depths.

But Matt’s perfect world is slowly being changed for the worse.  There is a mysterious trademaster who seems to be able to give everything your heart desires, at the cost of chipping away at your humanity one trade at a time.  The forest is becoming more and more corrupt and dangerous.  And the once benevolent and open villagers are planning on closing the village to outsiders, people, who, like the villagers when they first arrived, have nowhere else to go.  Because of the planned closing of the village, Matt goes back to Kira to lead her to the Village.  The way is hard and Matt barely makes it to Kira alive.  And things are even worse on the way back.  Someone will have to make a sacrifice.

The series, as it progresses, has less and less sci-fi aspects and has become very fantasy oriented.  While I also love fantasy, this leaves me a bit disoriented.  In this book, the mysterious trademaster seems like evil personified, a monster.  And Jonas’ and Kira’s and Matt’s special abilities are more magical, as is the dark forest.  As the series progresses, I like the books less and less.  I found the story a bit clichéd and simplistic.  And the ending, which was supposed to be really touching, didn’t really do anything for me.  That is not to say that the book was bad.  It was good enough to keep me interested.  It is quite alright and might be good for a younger audience.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Before I even went online to find out who wrote which part, I already guessed that the first Will Grayson was by Green and the second will grayson was by Levithan.  Let me preface by saying that I love John Green.  I've only read one Levithan book and I like him, but I don't love him.  This book pretty much supports my initial opinions on both authors.  

Will Grayson is a typical nerdish teenager.  Just trying to keep his head down, trying to attract as little attention as possible and trying to feel as little as possible.  This is was getting pretty hard considering that his best friend was the most flamboyant, HUGEST gay ever.  Who is named Tiny.  And is a football player.  The aforementioned Tiny sets Will up with a cute girl and basically totally ignores Will's pledge to himself to FEEL NOTHING and ATTRACT NO ATTENTION.

But there is also another will grayson.  One who is the most depressed and dark teenager ever.  He likes nothing and no one, not even his only friend, a goth girl.  They only thing they have together is their misery.  The only thing he likes in the world is his online boyfriend (I forgot to mention that this Will is gay).  But ***SPOILERS*** it turns out that his boyfriend is just his goth friend (not a very good friend) pretending to be somebody else.

Will 2 finds all of this out on his trip to the city where he is is heartbroken when his date does not show up.  But it is there that he runs into Will 1 and events that change both their lives unfold.

I got to say that I like Will 1 much better that will 2.  Maybe it's because of my impatience for emo characters, which is not very empathetic of me, I know, but I can't help it.  I also like John Green's writing style more than Levithans'.  However, I did not like this story as much as I liked every other John Green book.  I think it has something to do with Tiny, the huge gay friend.  I found him annoying,  I know he was supposed to be this really amazing guy, but my grumpy self just could not get into his exuberance.  And the ending.  Was cheesy and improbable.  Americans, is Will Grayson really a common name?

Hmm, it would seem like I hated the book.  But I really don't.  It had its funny and touching moments but I just couldn't get that into it.  Personal preference.

CBR IV # 22 - The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Kids with cancer always bring out the tears. But far from being a Lifetime movie, this book doesn't feel like it's actively trying to hurt your heart, it just does.

16 year old Hazel is a career cancer patient. The question is not if she'll die but when. This has turned her into a bit of a recluse, spending her time reading and watching shitty reality shows. She doesn't want to inflict herself on other people, knowing she'll soon be leaving. But the cancer support group brings an unexpected hottie, Augustus Waters, who is a survivor. They form an instant connection and soon form a strong bond. Oh, they are in love.

John Green's teenagers always seem impossibly smart. Their conversations deeply philosophical and their words infinitely quotable. Nevertheless, they still theseem like real teenagers somehow. Feeling the stuff that that we felt, just more eloquent, I guess. Hazel, I like her. She's not a manic pixie dream girl like Alaska. She's steady and smart and sarcastic. Augustus seems to good to be true at first but as you get to know him, his cracks show and he turns out to just be this kid. A really good one, but a kid nevertheless. And their love, how can a book with kids with cancer turn out to be anything but a tragedy?

But like I said, the book isn't just a cancer book. It's realistic and thought provoking. Yes, one should prepare their tissues when reading this, but one should also prepare their brain.

# 52 Looking For Alaska by John Green

Now that is a manic pixie dream girl. Miles Halter is leaving his suburban Florida high school to go to boarding school in Alabama. Why? He says it is to seek "the Great Perhaps", Francois Rabelais' last words (whom I do NOT know). Miles is a little odd. He loves reading biographies and memorizes famous people's last words. He was friendless in his old school, and that might be the reason he was so eager to seek the Great Perhaps.

Going to Culver Creek seems to have been a great idea, since ha actually gained some friends there. His roommate, and the aforementioned manic pixie dream girl, Alaska. They have fun and play pranks, fall in love and do boarding school stuff, but tragedy is just around the corner. After the tragedy, the story shifts showing how the kids, especially Miles handles it. Things are learned about themselves, they grow up a little.

This is usually described as YA but the themes and details are very adult. Perhaps it is YA because it is a coming of age story. It's not an unusual concept really. Weird, or socially maladjusted, loner kid meets friends, or a girl, who helps them grow up. But John Green tells the story in a charming way. The first part is mostly light hearted but the second part is painful and real. I liked it, I really did. It wasn't life changing, but I definitely liked it.

I liked it.

#48 - Born to Rock by Gordon Korman

I must be in a hurry to finish CBR, I have been reading YA non-stop. Well, the first 4 was a series so I guess that makes it a little better. This is just some random book I picked up at a used bookstore, it sounded interesting. YA rock and roll fiction.

Leo Caraway is a typical Type A achiever. Young Republican, Harvard bound, scholarship holder. But he is not some douchebag asshole, he is just a good hardworking kid, who just wants to do well in life. And he's not actually that typical. His bestfriend is an abrasive punk/goth girl, and he finds out, his biological father is actually King Maggot (or is he?), vox for one of the most influential punk bands in history (book history). When he loses his scholarship (due to him basically being a good guy and doing the right thing), he decides to find his father and try to get some harvard tuition money out of him.

What happens next is a madcap adventure, with him serving as a roadie in Purge's reunion tour. The situation is at times awesome and at times horrible. But it leads to some bonding time with his father and some sexy time with the bestfriend. He, in typical YA fashion, learns something about his parentage, the world, and most importantly himself.

I liked the way the paternity issue was resolved. I think it was unusual and deliciously bittersweet. On the whole though, I though it was just an ok read. Nothing special really. I am just a sucker for "rock and roll" books, but this one was not that inspiring. Not horrible but sort of bland.

# 47 - Ms. Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

X-men, Victorian edition (actually, 1940, but the pictures feel more Victorian). Present day, Jacob is a typical disaffected youth, pharmacy heir, and loner. Poor little rich kid he was. However, his close relationship with this peculiar grandfather proves a gateway to fantastical adventures. His grandfather always had weird stories (and even weirder photographs) for Jacob, which unfortunately, as Jacob becomes older seems more and more like just his grandfather's fantastical imagination.

His grandfather's death, though, leads Jacob to see the horrible monsters his grandfather has long been afraid of, and to learn that the stories may be true after all.

So there are kids with superpowers, time travelling and whatnot. It was an ok book but came eay below my expectations considering the creepy pictures. I was really expecting something a bit darker and deeper and creepier. Not so much the standard fantasy/adventure that this book was. The plot, as well as the monsters, just seemed a bit childish to me. Well, this is after all a YA book, so maybe, as noted in my Uglies review, I am too old for YA. I hope not.

But the pictures! Man, the pictures are the best part of the book, as well as how the author managed to make stories around the picture. That was cool, yeah.

# 43, 44, 45 and 46 - Uglies, Pretties, Specials and Extras by Scott Westerfeld

I read the series in the course of 2 days, when I was taking my MCLE (Mandatory Continuing Legal Education), that's two 9-hour days of lectures which are supposedly updates, but really was more like a review. I am not ashamed to admit that I love YA, and I am very proud that I like sci-fi. I was not initially drawn to these books which were ubiquitous in out local bookstore chain. I just seemed too glossy, like Gossip Girls or Vampire Diaries, only with extra sci-fi. But., I read a lot of positive reviews so I decided to try it out.

One thing I will say, it is definitely a fast read, and a compulsive one. Or maybe I was really bored in the aforementioned 2 9-hour days. Well, anyway, I did finish it in 18 hours, more or less, so that's something.

The story was interesting, but also a bit implausible (yes, I know it's sci fi). So in the far future, humanity has retreated to enclosed (but not, like, heavily guarded. or is it?) cities where everyone is turned pretty on their 16th birthday. At least, that's the case in the city our heroine, Tally Youngblood lives. She is a normal teenager, feeling grossly ugly and super excited to turn pretty. But things get interesting when she meets a rebellious friend and learns that there is a different life outside of the city walls and that turning pretty might not just be a physical thing. The first three books focus on Tally's story of being an ugly, turning pretty, and then becoming special. The fourth volume, extras, is a stand-along story with new characters and Tally and the gang showing up in the middle of the book.

Did I like it? It was ok. Not so much. It was a bit too YA for me. Although it dealt with issues which are good to think over and discuss with kids, it was too obvious for me. Like, kids, you are beautiful just the way you are! Kids, what is peace without freedom?! And everything was too pat sometimes. And as I said, I found the premise itself a bit unbelievable, as in, I cannot believe that that is one of the possible roads humanity might be taking. Extras, is a little more based on the present world where worth is ranked through how popular one is, and everyone is followed around by their own personal news feed. Sounds more like the present, yeah?

I got interested though, in the mythology of how the world got to be the way it was. I enjoy the big picture much better that the interpersonal drama of the characters.

All in all, it was ok. I didn't hate it. Just a normal YA book. Maybe I was spoiled on amazing YA that a pretty good one seems just ok to me. Or maybe I'm too old for this shit.

#26 Summerland by Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon's foray into the YA genre turns into an ode to baseball, and you know, how it's a metaphor for life (no, I don't understand why. we don't play baseball here), and how playing it literally, saved the world from Armageddon.

Ethen Feld lives in a drizzly and dreary island obsessed with baseball. Unfortunately, he is horrible at it, the worst player anyone has ever seen. Then he gets recruited by a worlds-jumping creature to save Summerland, and save the worlds as they know it.

In the book, the universe is a giant tree, with four huge branches. One is the world as we know it, The Middling, then there's the Winterlands, Summerlands and the Gleaming. Cayote is plotting to bring down the tree, or put an end to the universe, by poisoning the well from which the tree universe gets nourishment.

Of course, Ethen Feld and his merry band of misfits (his bestfriend, a yeti, a ferisher, a changeling, a tiny dwarf.. you get the drift) travel and jump from world to world trying to catch up to Cayote and prevent him from ending life. This is done, of course, through baseball.

The book is a charming blend of Norse, Native American and North American mythology (those are all I recognized). It is quirky to the max with lots of amusing details and characters. Sometimes, I feel like it gets weighed down by all the quirk and the extraneous details. And like most children's fantasy, things just seem to fall into place. Sure, there are setbacks, but the protagonists seem to always find the perfect person, or the perfect weapon to escape the scraped they're in.

It is a wonderfully imaginative book, sometimes too much so that it seems sort of silly and random to me.

# 10 River Rats by Caroline Stevermer

I like YA fiction. I also really like post-apocalyptic fiction. I also really, really like rock n roll. But somehow, this book which combines the three is not really doing it for me.

It's post-apocalyptic America,where the population has been drastically reduced by an event the characters call the Flash, and further so by the pestilence, which kills quickly and terribly. Some cities survive, as well as small pockets of civilization, as do the Wild Boys, a band of kids who live in the infected wastelands, immune to the pestilence.

The River Rats are a group of kids living in a paddle wheel steamboat. Too rebellious to live in cities which must necessarily have a lot of rules in order to survive, but too level headed and organized to be wild boys. They go up and down the Mississippi, delivering mail, providing news and staging rock concerts in exchange for clean food and water. Life is almost routine for these kids (as routine as post-apocalyptic America can be), and they are surviving pretty well as a family. However, they encounter some excitement when they rescue King, an adult being chased by scary big guys,the Lesters, an unsavory family controlling a village. And so starts their adventure. Being chased, held captive and so on...

The story is told from the viewpoint of one of the rats, Tomcat. He is perhaps, the most irresponsible and "wild" of all the rats, but he's a good kid. They all are, actually, acting as family for one another in a world where family is scarce.

It is an exciting adventure story with interesting backdrop. The author's imagination of society after the apocalypse is pretty good with the aforementioned enclaves or good places, as the rats call it, amidst the destruction.

Why didn't I like it? I don't know, it just didn't speak to me. I mean, I don't hate it, I'm just meh about it. I guess it is a pretty good YA adventure, just not for me.

# 6 - The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin

The Killer's Cousin is the story of a teenager (David) who had been tried for the killing of his girlfriend. Although he was acquitted, life was not, and could never be the same. David moves to Massachusetts to live with his mother's semi-estranged brother and his wife and daughter to escape the constant scrutiny and persecution in his home town. To give him a new life, so to speak. But life is anything but good in his new home. He is lonely, his aunt and uncle don't talk, and his 11 year old cousin Lily is uber creepy.

So, is Lily a budding sociopath or just a weird lonely kid with issues? Was David rightly acquitted or did he really kill his girlfriend. Some questions are answered and some not, but one thing is certain, this is one creepy book. Lily can get quite scary for an eleven year old, and I was always scared that David would snap and do something horrible.

But the end is quite surprising. I was expecting it to be the typical "evil kid"/bad seed sort of thing, but it was actually quite touching and unexpected.

The Killer's Cousin is about guilt, and forgiving one's self. And the importance of family and having someone there for you. i quite enjoyed the book. Thrilling and unexpected. It did, however, seem very YA and the adult reader may not enjoy it as much as its intended audience.