"The Faults in Our Stars" by John Green

The Faults in Our Stars, by John Green, is a book following Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old cancer survivor who meets the charming, witty and dashingly handsome Augustus Waters at her cancer support group. This book, which I have previously read, is consistently one of my favorite books of all time, refreshed in my mind as being a wonderful, powerful, charming, emotional book every time I read it. I read this book for book clubs, and one of the questions my club had before we started reading was, "What keeps the character motivated?" I thought this question was really important to the plot of the The Faults in Our Stars. Many of the characters are driven by each other, and mutual want of respect and love, in this book.

For instance, Hazel is driven by Gus to do more with her life. Hazel has a fine life before she met Gus, but Gus helped her live more. Augustus introduces the idea to her that she can go to Amsterdam to visit their favorite author, Van Houten, the author of An Imperial Affliction, a fictional book in the world of TFiOS. Gus introduces a new, exciting sort of energy into Hazel's life, someone who has been living for so long prepared to die, and energy that makes her want to live. I think this is also cause for Hazel not wanting to get too close to Gus, as she thinks that she'll just break his heart by dying, and that their time together, the new energy he brought to her life, will just go to waste. However, overall in the book, I think Gus motivates Hazel to do more with her life than she could have imagined to do otherwise.

The parents in this book are also driven by love for their children. The parents of these teenagers with cancer want to make their kid's live as good as possible, and they help them in so many amazing ways. Hazel's mom, for instance, almost organizes all of the trip to Amsterdam to make her daughter happy. Knowing that her daughter may die at any time also motivates Hazel's mother to take good care of Hazel, and try hard to make her daughter's life better. She wants her to go to cancer support groups to help Hazel with any problems she's having, she supports Hazel in her relationship with Gus, a near stranger, and goes to Amsterdam with Hazel just so Hazel can meet one of her favorite authors.

I think that in this book, the characters are also motivated by their wanting to have made an impact on people's lives. They want to be remembered, as all humans do. So many of the characters in this book are given such short strings on life, because of cancer, they want to make sure they are remembered for something other than cancer. Hazel and Gus often talking about philosophy, I think, is an ode to this, as they want to discover something more about the world. They want to know that they weren't just defined by their cancer, but by something else, something important, something that changed people. Gus, especially, has this want, as he comes into people's lives, such as Isaac, or Hazel, and just tries his best to make them better. As Gus says, "The marks humans leaves are too often scars." Gus doesn't just want to be a 'grenade' that left scars in people lives. He wants people to live as much as he wants to live, and he wants people to know that he wanted them to live. I think in the end, everyone wants that, but as people who were told from the beginning, "You will most likely die", to have that terrible weight on your chest most of your life, they want to know that people remember them not just as, "The girl with cancer."

This book tackles with so many issues, so many, deep, basic human wants and emotions, it's really hard to talk about only one of them. I'm sure I could write hundreds of essays on the different themes in The Faults in Our Stars. The characters in this book are one of my favorite parts of it, which is one of the reasons I chose to respond this question. They're so strong, so inspiring, and so lovin
g. Each one of them made whoever they touched a better person. They're each are so motivated to help others, and to help each other. The book deals with mortality and sacrifice and so many more issues in a relatable, unique, funny, heartbreaking way. The characters in this book are almost doomed from the moment we meet them. These characters, however, these amazing, strong characters, are able to do so much more good in the world. They're not just angry (Though they are a little angry,), they're curious, intellectual, understanding, and compassionate. None of them ever gave up, and I think that's pretty great.

Update: The Faults in Our Stars

I recently began reading, The Faults in Our Stars by John Green (cough cough I am a huge nerdfighter.) ANYWAYS

This is by far one of my favorite books, ever. I have previously read this book, this amazing, deep, philosophical, emotional, touching book, and now I am reading it again for book clubs.

One thing I initially notice about reading TFiOS, as I'm rereading it, is that Hazel doesn't attempt to do very much with her life until Gus shows up. I mean, Hazel has the urge to do things, and wants and desires like everyone else, but I feel like Gus is really the one that enables her, makes her want to do these things that seem ridiculous and impossible beforehand, like meeting the author of An Imperial Affliction and going to Amsterdam.

One reason I think this is is because Hazel is more physically weighed down than Gus is, due to her oxygen tank, so it's a more constant reminder of how she will always be held back by cancer, and how cancer will be forever affecting her life. Gus, though cancer still obviously affected him in huge ways, Gus probably will sometimes forget that he has an amputated leg more than Hazel will forget that she has to drag around a metal tank with her all day.

NOT THAT I'M TRYING TO DISCREDIT amputees. That is, if possible, the exact opposite of what I'm trying to convey. I'm just pointing out, with Gus' dreamer and optimist personality, it's most likely more easy for him to forget his troubles than Hazel is, who has a more serious and down to earth personality, especially since he doesn't have as much trouble as Hazel, let's say, walking up stairs because of a tank he has to carry around.

Gah, this is just a mess. I feel like I'm offending everyone.

"Other Words for Love" by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

**Spoilers!**

Other Words for Love, by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal, follows Ari, who after earning an inheritance from her Uncle, attends a prestigious Manhattan prep school. She encounters glamorous and rich new people, and even gets Leigh, her new friend. With Leigh comes her enchanting cousins, Delsin and Blake. While Delsin is a smooth, slightly creepy ladies man, Blake is a warm hearted and undeniably handsome. He charms Ari until she falls for him. After blissful weeks of going out, Ari is suddenly broken-up with by Blake-- and left in a heart-broken trance. Why? Ari risked everything for Blake? Was Ari wrong all along about Blake?

This book was kind of good. 

Great way to start a review.

 One thing I don't like is that the blurb is that at the end it says: "were their feelings true love... or something else?" Which immediately makes me think what? What else besides love? It leaves and open topic and readers questioning which blurbs are supposed to do, but in a stupid way. Anyways, after reading the book, you immediately know that it was love, not lust, or something more animal in desire than love that brought Blake and Ari together. 

Ari's struggle with the breakup is justified slightly by how Blake was her 'first love' and everything, I do think Ari was too obsessed with him.  I get it that she thought he was amazing and she really thought he was perfect, but every 'normal girl' (as Ari often says she is) knows that no boy is 'forever', and that you have to get over it. Ari literally could have changed the course of her life because one guy dumped her. She almost became a stay-at-home slouch who would be obsessed with Blake forever. Why would a smart girl like Ari fall so easily into that slump?

One explanation for the possible for this, however, is that Ari was not only enticed by the attractive boy, like Blake, but the lifestyle of his social class in general. They live in high rises, with fancy parties and classy suits, and have cool families and hip moms and go to private schools without needing a scholarship or their dead uncle's inheritance. This glitz and glam life most likely took Ari away from the life of a girl in Queens (or is it Brooklyn?), who has a middle class lifestyle with homely parents and a messed up family life. Also, a little more randomly, I feel like the 1980's setting ending up being less as important as it seemed in the beginning.

This book portrays girls as so weak, and so needy for love if they're not getting it that they will give up all their dreams for a guy. The actions of Ari, even after knowing Blake was just weak and couldn't stand up for himself, were unbelievable. She was lusting after him and crying for a guy who would appear unattractive, I think, to many girls, as he was someone who couldn't hold his ground and make life choices. The book also jumps back and forth around this theme, and shows these two sides with conflicting consistency.

I mean you have Leigh, who, however mistreated by Ari and Blake, was an immature character, and she was scarred by her boyfriends death, yet she didn't understand any of the other characters desire for affection.  The author makes some moments with the characters so relatable, but some moments so awkward that you feel like you have to take a step back from the book to really get what was going on.

I think the relationship between Summer and Ari is very interesting, however, and was one of the more believable and interesting parts of the book. It was a classic 'friends breaking up' type of plot, but that happens in real life all the time, and was relatable. Also, Summer's character, no matter how unbearable, did make the story more interesting for me.

I was about 50/50 with this book, in terms of how much I liked/disliked it. I thought the author kind of spewed out the end and went a little too far into 'the obsession' of Ari with Blake. She made the characters too weak to believe. That bothered me. I like a book with strong characters with believable flaws that I can relate too. I wouldn't whine over a boy for a summer just because he broke up with me. I would probably mostly be angry, as Blake literally ruined Ari's future. 

"It's Not Summer Without You" by Jenny Han

**Spoilers!**

(I also read this book before, and decided to read it again.)


It's Not Summer Without You, by Jenny Han, is about Belly, or Isabel, is in her last year of high school. After her mother's best friend, and one of her best friends, Susannah, died of breast cancer, her life hasn't been the same. Her mother is breaking under the stress as executor of Susannah's will, and doesn't have any grieving time on her own. Belly's brother is far away, off at college, and almost non-existent in their current life. Her secret escape, Susannah's beach house, is now a memory, and Belly is dreading the summer without her time with her brother, mother, Susannah and Susannah's sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. To make matters worse, Conrad, the boy Belly has loved for forever, has broken up with her, and is detached and alone, not even talking to her, and dumping her right when Susannah died, when she needed him the most. But when Belly's told by Jeremiah Conrad is gone, she goes to find him without hesitation, and ends up at the beach house. This is her last chance to save her relationship with Conrad and finally come to terms with the death of the person that brought them all together. 

This book was pretty good, but it wasn't as good as I remember. It was still better than the last book, The Summer I Turned Pretty. The book is well written, like the last book (tip off the hat to Jenny Han). The whole story is well formulated, the characters are believable, the love story is sigh worthy, and it has a nice, neat love triangle to top the story off.

These are also all very basic and well worn tools by authors of YA romance books.

The character set up and development, thought predictable, are very nicely written. It's a very straightforward book in theme and plot, but the little details, as in the last book, make me like it so much. I love, strangely enough, the 'annoyingness' (no better word) of Belly after her breakup with Conrad, and after Susannah's death. She tries to use guilt to get what she wants, and find excuses for what I must say so myself, is terrible behavior. Also I liked how other characters (such as Taylor) react by getting mad at her, and not forgiving her. The holding grudges, obsessing, depression, whining, and just emotions of this book is what makes this a very believable book. The ways the characters interact have a lot to do with this, and it made the book a lot more enjoyable to read, in my opinion.

Many of the themes in this book are really cheesy. The brother love triangle, the way the brothers fight over Belly, the unrealistic things the people will do for love, all things that sometimes ruin a so far romance book for me. Even the classic beach cover with attractive girl with windblown hair is fairly overused. 

Reading this book again made me realize that many of the parts of the book that I loved last year made me a little queasy this year, and weren't as creative as I thought before. Though I obviously realized this book wasn't a greatest book ever, and that many plot points had been used before, it was just harder to enjoy when I realized it was glaringly obvious what would happen, not just because I had already read the story.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and thought it balanced sappiness and real-life emotions. Jenny Han has a very specific writing type, and has a talent for books such as these, teenager-y romance plots involving summer romances. Her books are a guilty pleasure of mine, and I would be interested in reading the rest of this series.

"Why We Broke Up" by Daniel Handler (Illustrations by Maira Kalman)

**Spoilers!**


Why We Broke Up, by Daniel Handler is the story of young love, and probably more importantly, young heartbreak.

The story follows 'artsy' Min, and jock-ish Ed Slaterton as they go out.

...

That's one of the reasons I didn't exactly like this book.

I mean, the book itself was very well written, and I loved a lot of the beautiful moments in the book. Some of Min's lines from her letters, or her narrations I suppose, were seemingly simple, but entirely gorgeous. Many of these included lines at the ends of portions of the letters, which gave the overall reasons why Min and Ed broke up. I loved the simple-ness of the illustrations as well, because though very well painted/drawn, they were simple pictures of only one or two items. But what they meant in the story and to the characters were the important.

A couple things I didn't like about the story was Min and Ed's relationship, or at least how it began. I think Min, so focused on not being, but still being artsy, and so openly knowing of her and Ed's differences, should have not fallen for Ed as hard as she did. I do understand, that these are teenagers. Us teens to stupid, and crazy things, but still, most people would realize, "Oh, this is a jock who I really have nothing in common with, I mean, he's hot, but really?" Min seemed to dive into this relationship knowing almost nothing about Ed, and then was surprised after only a month of dating, and barely knowing him, and almost always seemingly internally dissatisfied with the relationship, that he had cheated on her.

The relationship itself only really lasted a month too. Would anyone really get that attached to a person they only know as a popular figure in their school in a month?

In response to my comment on top, about how I didn't like the subject of the book, I feel like the book had no deeper meaning, and just kind of left the story there, almost just a pretty picture.

I understand this is a story of young, fast paced, head over heels love, but as a teenager in modern society, I can't imagine people getting this 'in love' (well, not really, but kind of, but not really, you know?) in a month!

I still very much enjoyed this book, however, and it creates a fairly beautiful image of a relationship and people walking into such relationships without really knowing what they're doing.

"Red Glove" by Holly Black (Curse Workers Series #2)

**Spoilers!**

In this continuation of the Curse Workers series by Holly Black, and follows Cassel struggle with not only trying to maintain is normal life at school in this last couple years, but dealing with the discovery of his new Transformative powers. Things get more difficult when Lila joins his school, making it even harder to separate his lives, as well as his confusing feelings for Lila. But a new mystery emerges when Cassel learns that his brother, Phillip, has been murdered, and all they know about the killer is that she's  a woman. A woman with Red Gloves.

I really liked this book as a continuation of the series. The book at many strong points that helped elaborate on the world of the story and the characters, their relationships.

Cassel and his mother's relationship is definitely developed, especially during the exchanges during Phillip's funeral and toward the beginning of the book when Cassel discovers his mother has curse-worked Lila into 'loving' him. Cassel's mother is seemingly trying to help, but at this same time, knowingly not helping Cassel much at all in the long run. Lila's feelings, being produced by emotion working, will fade, so no matter how much Cassel's mother wants or thinks she is helping, she must know this will happen. The mother's character itself is very fickle and irresponsible. I also find it interesting her interactions with the other family, like Barron, and family friends, during many of the scenes involving Phillip's death. She seems obviously melodramatic, but it's clear she does love her children, and almost as though she just doesn't know how to get that message across.

I want to know about why the mother is like this. Maybe she felt bad about attaching to her children while she was bringing them up in such an unstable and corrupted environment, or maybe because of this environment she never had the time to learn how to communicate with her children.

I'm already started with the next book, Black Heart, but I'm very excited to see where this story goes!

"There is No Dog" by Meg Rosoff

When Bob, the adolescent god of Earth, a small, unwanted planet (Simply placed upon Bob as none of the other celestial deities wanted it), falls in love with a human, and more importantly mortal, girl, the world turns upside down. Bob wreaks havoc on the little planet, and his under rewarded, fed up assistant, Mr. B, can do nothing to stop it. At the same time, his much ignored pet, Eck, the last one of the Ecks, is gambled off by Bob's mother to be eaten, and Bob does not care in the least. It falls on the shoulders of Estelle, a logical young immortal being, who is the daughter of the very god trying to eat Eck, and of course, Mr. B, while they also try to stop the world from being thrown into an environmental disaster from hormones. 

I just reread this book, and I am disappointed by the amount of appreciation I gave it. Though, the things I don't like about it still stand, I enjoy it much more than I did when I first read it. The book is funny, sarcastic, dynamic, and borderline blasphemous. All things I enjoy (though not specifically blasphemy, I just enjoy questioning beliefs and norms given to humans).  The book, though silly at times, takes up a couple serious questions. First of all, obviously, "Does God exist?" Followed by, "Why does God, if he does exist, do what he does?" "Who gave God the right to do these things?" All of these are woven quite nicely into the plot, and leave you with something to think about at the end.

Some problems that I had with this book were that the pace changed drastically at the end. They sped it up too much! I don't like when people rush books, especially at the end, which makes it seem like they weren't committed, and just threw it out there when they got bored. 

The actually end, in theory, was great however. It wasn't executed well, but it worked very well for the plot. It told so sweetly the companionship- love-friendship-(?) of Mr. B and Estelle. I wanted them to be together the whole book. I also wanted to punch Bob in the face. He was one of the most annoying, bratty characters I've ever read. Which I guess was the point, but, oh, God, did I want him to get thrown into space. Also, what is with the bureaucracy of these immortal, all powerful beings? They just throw the obviously worst choice into the job? Who does that? Don't they take any sort of progress report? I mean Bob did great things at first, but he was a whiny baby, not even capable of taking care of himself, let alone a whole planet. 

Some of the writing style of the author put me off a bit too, which had to do with the skimmed end of the book, but it was still enjoyable.

"Perfect" by Ellen Hopkins

**Spoilers!**

Perfect, by Ellen Hopkins, is the story of four high school students struggling with colleges, love, their futures, and what perfect really means.

This was the first book to get me to cry. Ever. I'm so serious. As an ode to how important this fact is, I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and The Faults in Our Stars, both of which I like to think of as a downright sad books, and did not cry during those. 

This book was amazing. When I first read the blurb, I thought it was going to be cheesy. But it was so intense and saddening and an amazing mix of poetry and narrative. The stories were so believable it hurt. You could feel all the raw emotion. Hopkins does some of the most amazing things I've ever seen with literature. I loved Crank, probably one of Hopkin's most famous books, but I think this book should be just up there with it.

The ending is what really did me in. It's so impossibly unhappy, but so terribly hopeful. Andre is ready to face his family, but Jenna is raped. Sean's life is permanently messed up and he's borderline crazy thanks to obsession and steroids, Conner dies, but Cara find her true self and finally finds love with Dani. 
Kendra is torn and anorexic (and seems to stay that way), but has seen inside her family and admitted her feelings fully for maybe the first time.

It's the mix of jealousy, desire, love, hate, lust, anger, violence, sadness and maliciousness that make this book such a deliciously dark read, and reel you in. The characters seem to each represent something perfect people want in their lives, each one twisting this image painfully, making you realize how fast cracks can form from perfection. Each character gives you a different approach on perfect in people's lives.

I hated Sean. He was so self-involved, and childish, and by the end of the book, I was afraid of him, and afraid of what he thought was right in his twisted, broken mind. He's so creepy and insane at the end, it's hard to imagine anyone like that. His motives started off so pure. He was so in love with Cara, you feel sorry for the guy that she didn't try to justify herself to him at all. She just broke it off, then even though he was hung up over her and one of her best friends (as she mentions in the first part of the book), she doesn't try to explain anything

Cara was near the most relaxed character. Most of the story, she was just crazy in love, and handling it, or thinking about her older brother. I thought that her realizing she was lesbian was a little too fast (like when they're skiing she just automatically says 'Maybe' she's lesbian when Danielle asks? There is no hint of that she is before that. I think it's amazing that she found what she really wanted, but it was kind of forced, especially if it was her first time with a girl. I think she would have been a little more nervous. Though I also didn't read the first book, which could have exposition to this fact in it), but her sadness at the end of the book was just so real. Her crying, "Mommy" and, "Daddy" when Conner died, even though she hated them most of the time and resented them? It was so raw.

Kendra was in so much denial. I wanted an emotional breach. It was almost hard to get attached to her. Her problem was so much more than her eating disorder. She reminded me of a mild Sean, because she only thought of Conner. She used him to justify her own madness.

Andre was also fairly mild compared to everyone else. He should be himself. I think that his relationship with Jenna really made him interesting. He adored and loved her unconditionally. But she was too childish, and too scarred by her parents to reciprocate. It's almost a relief when you see she realizes this. And when she gets raped right after Andre breaks it off with her, it's so sad. 

THE BOOK IS SAD.

But...
This book is one of my all time favorite, and always will be.

Update: "After Ever After" by Jordan Sonnenblick

**Spoilers!**

The book, After Ever After, by Jordan Sonnenblick is the sequel to Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, following Jeffrey Alper, after his cancer went into remission, now in his eighth grade year, dealing with many of the same problems Steven Alper, his older brother, did in his eighth grade year in, Drums, Girls...

I really like this book so far. It reminds me a lot of the original story, and has extremely similar tones, probably due to that they're written by the same person, Jordan Sonnenblick. That's a pretty obvious explanation. But I like that Sonnenblick brings out new characters, and though in this story, as the last one, there's still the main boy character, his love interest, and the best friend.

One thing I would like to explore is the best friend in this story, Jeffrey's best friend, Thaddeus, or Tad. Tad is a really antisocial person, often really downright mean to people. He was even snide to Jeffrey when they first met, and to the girl he likes.

I believe that this is Tad's attitude at the beginning of the story, pretty much almost up to the point I'm at now in the book, because he was afraid to get close to people, and he wasn't sure even how long he would live to see them become friends.

Tad's cancer made him feel weak, and it made him afraid he wasn't going to live. This obviously made him look down on the world, probably seeing their problems as more insignificant than his, which explains his cynicism and sarcasm towards many in the book currently.

But I believe also that besides Tad's weakness bringing out this trait, it also made him question how much he wanted to do in his life, or if there was any point to it. He gave up trying to walk, and he was just complacent with the life he had. He knew that he had his best friend to get by with, so he didn't think he needed to go out of his way to be friendly to anyone else. I think that Tad is fully aware that is cancer could return in the story, which it does, so he tries not to get closer to anyone and uses his cynicism as a shield.

This also explains why Tad wants Jeffrey to pass Jeffrey's state tests so much. He wants to make sure that Jeffrey gets to do at least everything Tad does, and make sure that Jeffrey doesn't give up like Tad does. This also shows that Tad is not truly mean, and is actually quite compassionate, spending a lot of his own time working with Jeffrey on math.

"Evermore" by Alyson Noel

**Spoilers!**

Evermore by Alyson Noel is the story of Ever Bloom, a fairly normal teen, except she can see people's auras, see the dead, and mind read by touch. When Damen transfers to her high school, she is immediately drawn to him, and his terrible secrets.

This book is tired out and predictable. It's the same as Fallen, Twilight, and many other YA fantasy-hottie books that are today. Though, truthfully, this was printed in 2009, as were those other two books, but still, the point stands. If you're ever seen Twilight or read it, the book is boring from the first page. At least Twilight made an impact by being the first really big YA/romance/teenager/angst/fantasy/supernatural book to come out, though, admittedly, Twilight wasn't even remarkably good.

Ever, as many other of the main characters in these types of books, is sullen and a loner, but beautiful, conveniently, and so hot that only if she reached out she could be happy! But sadly, she doesn't, and neither does she try to fix herself. She only has to await the rescuing arms of some hottie (Damen) to do what you would never have thought to do: Actually try to fix your own problems to make you happy, instead of being anti-social and sullen. The things that annoy me the most about books like these is that they make women look like anxious wrecks who need men to come in and save them whenever pretty much anything happens. No girl that I have ever met has not been able to handle at least some of their problems on their own. An all these girls have amazing powers, like reading minds, or talking to the dead, or being vampire proof, or something else that makes them, possibly, the most valuable person in-book universe.

Back to the book...

Take these unmotivated, flailing female character aforementioned, then add some incredibly random BS myths, weirdo, unbelievably unmotivated antagonists, gullible characters, very vague descriptions about pasts of many peoples, and voila, you have a whole book that's extremely repetitive and washed-out.

Why does Noel have to add the random thing with Drina at the end? I hated that part. It was like she needed Drina to blurt out all the exposition she couldn't explain through the narration or through character dialogue, plot points, hints, or anything. And really? Drina pushed the deer in front of her family's car? Why? It's so random. Why doesn't Drina just sneak into her room in the middle of the night and slit her throat, like a normal murderer would? There is also no explanation to why Drina is so obsessed with Damen. He saved her, and they were married. But divorced people find others! They move along? Why does Noel drop the hint of alchemy being involved in Damen being an immortal, but then veers off and doesn't explain jack-squat? So much pointlessness!

Also, really? I don't get in these books how quickly people believe all the stuff their boyfriends tell them.

The book:

''I'm... An Immortal!''

''OMG NO WAY YOU'RE CRAZY''

''Nooo!!!!''

''Back to normal life!... wait oh no I'm being attacked!''

''Here I come to save the day!''

'Thank you! So what's up with you?''

''Oh, I've just been following you around for the past six hundred years because you're so hot... and I've never gotten in your pants, which I keep mentioning and you don't get creeped out at all about!''

''Oh, it's true! I knew it! I'm not skeptical, or need any more clarification! Let's go be together! Also I'm still underage! And you're six-hundred!''

That's basically all you need to know about Evermore.

Why do even bother reading these books anymore.
HOW WAS THIS A BEST SELLER? Thank god for people like John Green. Can we please have more books like Looking for Alaska, or Paper Towns on the best seller lists?

"After" by Amy Efaw

**Spoilers!**

After, by Amy Efaw, tells the story of Devon. Devon has always been the "good girl". Straight A's. Master goalie on the soccer field. Quiet and well-behaved, even with her slightly obnoxious and childish mother who goes through men just a little bit too fast. But when a new-born baby is found in a trash can behind Devon's house, left to die, and Devon is the one to blame, her life will change forever. But how could Devon herself have not known about the baby as she claims? When she was pregnant, gaining weight and throwing up? 

This was actually a really good book. I heard some bad reviews about it and wanted to see if it was as terrible as people were saying. Though really the only thing that bothered me was that Amy Efaw used too many soccer references in it. I'm kind of laughing at that now, because that's a very silly thing to think of a book. But I guess it was very soccer oriented? I did think Devon, as a character was a little useless at times, and some of her motivations were confusing me. But I know very little on the subject of the book, pregnancy and rejecting your child after birth, so I may not have the full picture.

I thought this was a really intriguing book about how far humans will go to keep their personal image. I hated Devon at the beginning. It seemed so obvious that she was pregnant, and all the things that were put up against her as evidence, mostly the details in the flashbacks, shows that she did know that it was likely she was pregnant. She even seemed to hide it from other people actively, which means that she did know! I understand that denial over traumatic events can occur, but it seemed so obvious that she knew that she was with child, and that she could have done something about it.

One of the reasons this book ended up being really satisfying for me is that at the end, Devon does realize all of the things I said above. She knows that even if she was denying it to herself, at some level she knew she was pregnant. She knew what she was subconsciously trying to do when wearing baggy clothes, or what she realized when she had cramps from sit-ups. That she knew that she had to pay and do something about almost killing her child was what really showed that Devon was still Devon. She knew she wanted the baby gone when she gave birth. She knew she was trying to make it go away by hurting the baby. If I tried to do get rid of a child in secret, I wouldn't be able to get it off my mind- that I tried to kill something as precious as a baby, but I didn't pay any consequences.

As I said before as well, I didn't like that there were so many random soccer references in the book. I get that soccer was important to Devon as a character, but would someone realistically think that everything was like soccer? I got all the little anecdotes about hard games and practicing and tough foul shots, but it kind of took me out of a story that was really about what humans can and will do and denial, and made me think it was one of those children's shorter chapter books all about some kid and his baseball team, and the conflict is all about how some other guy on another team cheat and he has to prove it or something. It just felt wrong. It was a weird tonal change in the book. I expect that from sports books, but do even professional soccer players always think in soccer metaphors, similes and analogies?

"Girl in Translation" by Jean Kwok

**Spoilers!!! (MASSIVE SPOILERS!)**

Girl in Translation is the story of Kimberly Chang, a Chinese immigrant from Hong Kong, who travels to New York City with her mother in hopes of a better life. The story follows Kimberly and her mother as they struggle to survive with almost no money and very little opportunity. I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was an interesting and very readable story of a modern immigrant. The characters were interesting to read, and the culture and topic was interesting to learn about.

One thing I really liked was how Kimberly and Mrs. Chang's culture influenced their decisions. They could have had a much better situation, perhaps as soon as they moved to America, if Mrs. Chang had not felt "in debt" to her sister. Most people in America would think this is strange. Why would you stick around someone who is so obviously not caring about you? Who intentionally hurts your progress towards a better life? But that's the thing about this book, you have to take into account the other culture that is a giant theme and powerful force in the book. I really liked learning about Chinese family dynamic and culture, but thought it wasn't too forced upon the reader. It just let the reader see the logic in the characters minds, and maybe even learn a little like I did.

I usually am not satisfied by endings in stories. However, I was pleased with the ending here. It wasn't shocking or amazing, but it was sweet and short. I really like how the author used the prologue to make is seem as though Kimberly would keep her and Matt's baby that she was pregnant with, and live with Matt. The small twist that she was not living with Matt, but still had the baby at the end of the story as an adult, was also nice.

That's another thing about the book that I like. The author keeps you guessing and reading the entire book. There wasn't one slow part of the book. Kwok had amazing pacing, glazing over whole months to years at a time, but then knowing just when to return to the story. Kwok also knows how to write these sequences, making sure it isn't unsatisfying to be reading something like, "The winter passed quickly...", and just giving enough description so you still know what's happening. It makes the story much more realistic, and easier to follow.

Kwok also sends you a message of you can do what you put your mind to. This book, at it's core, is a classic rags to riches story. She also shows that you can be in tough situations, like poverty, pregnancy, and even sweat shop or other excessive working, and you can still do what you want in school or out of it, and accomplish your goals if you try hard enough. I recommend this book to those who like historical fiction, and just a good realistic fiction story as well.

"Anya's Ghost" by Vera Brosgol

**Lots of Spoilers!**

Anya's Ghost, by Vera Brosgol is a graphic novel about a girl named Anya. Anya is ashamed about standing out in her little New England town, which includes hiding her hard to pronounce Russian last name and keeping the secret that she used to have a weird accent in kindergarten before she went to ESL, let alone dieting to keep off her muffin top. When Anya falls down an old well to discover a 98-year old body of a young woman, she's scared, yeah. But what's scarier is that the ghost of this certain corpse, named Emily Reilly, starts following Anya around...

This is the first graphic novel I read this year, and I'm insanely happy with this book. The story and artistic design of the book was awesome and really entertaining to read. It was dark, but not dark enough to give me nightmares. It also had a nice neat message to all us teenage girls in there. I especially connected with Anya.

The book starts off with Anya being really self-conscious, and not a very nice person. She wants to be accepted by the "cool" crowds at school, and does stuff she doesn't want to do, like smoking or dieting so she can work towards that. She is so embarrassed about her family and heritage, which is a giant part of who someone is, that she lies about her last name.

When Emily's character comes in, this pushes Anya to become the person she wants to be, because now she basically knows everything she could hope to. She has her own personal spy. But this also shows Anya the bad side of the "cool" kids. Sure, Anya may not be popular, but she doesn't cheat on her boyfriend like Sean, Anya's crush, did to his girlfriend Elizabeth. Anya has people she can trust. There's a bad side to everything, and you can't want one part of it and not the whole package.

a little preview of the art style :)

This is what makes Emily's character the antagonist in the end (or the past? I don't know). She can't accept that she can't have what she wants, like Anya did after the party at Matt's house, so Emily snapped. She killed her crush and his girlfriend then died, kind of in the spirit of karma. When she tries to live her life through Anya and that doesn't go the way she wanted it to either, she snaps again, and returns to violence as an answer. Only when Anya explains that you have to be happy with what you have and that you can't have everything you want is when Emily realizes all she's done and leaves the Earth.

Elizabeth, queen bee at Anya's high school, almost did the opposite of Emily, she found out Sean's unfaithfulness and that she couldn't get him the way she wanted, but instead of snapping, she bent so she could still "have" Sean and the image that came with him. She sits idly by while Sean hooks up with other girls. Elizabeth bent so far she broke in a different sense.

 I love the illustration too, because it's simple, but descriptive and clear. The color palate is awesome, matches the story perfectly.

Overall, this was a AMAZING book, with an excellent message. You have to be happy with what you have, and make the best of it. I recommend this book to Neil Gaiman and Hellboy fans and anyone (especially girls) who like a good, dark comic book.

"Out of Sight, Out of Time" by Ally Carter

**Spoilers!!**

Out of Sight, Out of Time, by Ally Carter, is the fifth book in the Gallagher Girls book series. In the last book, Cammie made her decision to leave Gallagher Academy, in hopes to find answers to why the secretive Circle of Cavan wants her, and to protect those around her. The book begins with Cammie waking up in a nunnery in the Alps with no memory of her summer, and her whole appearance changed. Cammie has to figure out what she found out over the summer to lead her there, and how to get back to her home and her old self.

Okay, as I said in the last post, GIRLY BOOK! However, though with a jokey premise and general characterizations for each character (the smart one, the tough/sexy one, the invisible one, the fashionable one), these books continue to amaze and impress me.

The best part of this book was Cammie's character development. She goes through the stage that every character in a series, in my opinion, goes through, her break. After years of being comfortable with herself and her position, she continues to leave her "invisible" shell that she started to exit in the last book, and has to reassure herself. The confirmed loss of her father, her memory loss, and the attitude towards her from her friends all shake Cammie really deeply. She has to reestablish herself as a character. Breaks like this happen in the end of the Hunger Games, Twilight, Percy Jackson, Lord of the Rings, and all other strong series that have been very popular. This gives the reader a refreshing take on the character and doesn't bore them with the same thing in every book.

Cammie's development in this book also has to do with identity and finding herself, as the last book did. Her memory loss makes her lose the idea of who she is, mostly because of the things she doesn't know she did. She ends up knowing how to assemble a rifle, having torture scars, and just being a more emotionally fragile person. The affect this has on her friends and her general sanity makes her have to start from scratch again with her personality. The death of her father also makes her reassess her life. She was content with just not knowing where her father was and assuming he was dead, but not wanting to confirm it. The change in her lifestyle made her break further. The affect it had on her sanity and her friends was really intense and interesting to read.

The more mature and dark content of this book also makes me very happy with this series. Percy Jackson, another book made for kids (also published by Disney-Hyperion), starts out very kid-like, but matures as the series and characters do. You think that Carter would have dealt with this sooner, but death is large part of the books, due to the situation with Cam's father, and in spies life. Cammie kills men, loses friends, almost commits suicide (though through hypnotism), loses herself and deals with her dad's death in this book.

Of course, there are  aspects of the series that will be silly and unrealistic, and there will always be. I cannot stress enough that this is a book for tweenage girls. But by far, this book impressed me the most in the series so far. The action and pacing stay AMAZING, and the characters still hold their intensity and snarky-ness, with believable with problems and reactions that you can relate to. Five Stars!

Update: "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson

**Spoilers!**

I'm currently reading The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary E. Pearson. Unfortunately, I was not correct with my clone theory. It makes me a little sad, but the alternative I guess, though not as much as a plot twist as Jenna being a clone, makes more sense.

I noticed I was partly right though. Jenna's whole body is basically a clone of herself, and her brain and body has been changed to be more perfect, like how someone could change a clone to perfection.

The conflict that this presents to Jenna is really interesting, and I love watching Jenna grow. Though personally, I don't see anything wrong with her, Jenna first found herself disgusting, and can't trust her own body. Finally, when she comes to accept this and when she was in a state where she could just live her life safely and legally from then on, she lets Allys discover her secret. I know, it's not like Jenna told Allys, but she knew she couldn't hide it, and didn't do anything about it. I don't really understand why Jenna did this. I think it was the fact that Jenna knew that she had to move on from the "perfect" world if she wanted to move on with her life. She couldn't live under her mother and father forever, because they would treat her like a piece of fine art, just put her away and admire her. They wouldn't want her to be used in real life.

I also think Allys, though having a point in her argument against significant biological enhancement, is angry about her own situation. Allys believe that it's unfair that some people should have more than she does. She needed more than limbs, but she couldn't get them, and is dying because of it. She doesn't think anyone should have more than what she did. I do agree that one person, like Jenna, shouldn't be enhanced, and that death should be expected almost as much as life. People can't avoid death forever, and Allys knows that. What Jenna's parents did was wrong, sure, but I think if someone's life is in the balance, and you can pretty much restore them to normal by giving them organs they need, you shouldn't need to consider how many "points" they have to do it.

Allys knew she was dying, and I do believe that she believed what she thought, but I think Allys shouldn't have told her parents that Jenna was illegal just to make her life harder, and that her view points were clouded by her anger towards her own disease and the way it was handled.

Update: "The Adoration of Jenna Fox", by Mary E. Pearson

**Slight Spoilers!**

I'm currently reading The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. So far, I love this book. It's very detail oriented and poetic. It's sci-fi, but has the emotional levels of the realistic fiction book. I love the almost child-like view of the world by Jenna too. It makes the book more and more interesting to read with a character who has a blank slate, and is literally developing before your eyes.

One thing I find really intriguing is the mystery surrounding Jenna Fox's past. Her family refuses to tell her anything, she abruptly relocated right after the accident, was seemingly in a medically induced coma most of her coma, and was awakened at a specific time. This makes the book another level to me, because besides having an interesting premise and being futuristic, it has mystery.

One theory I have about the secrecy about Jenna's past is that the Jenna Fox who is narrating the story is a clone saved at last minute after the accident. The original Jenna is dead, and her brain has been put into the new cloned Jenna (to keep personality), being sustained by using BioGel.

The first thing that led me to this is that on page 31 of the book, Jenna's mother starts to talk about miracles. She says as speaking to her mother, Lily, "Stop! You of all people should understand. If it wasn't for invitro, I wouldn't be here. You always called me your miracle. Why can't I have one too? When do you get to decide when the miracles end?" Though I'm not sure what "invitro" is, I think we can assume it's some technological or medical breakthrough for saving lives in the future, as it saved Jenna's mother's, Claire's, life. Lily continues to say that Jenna is "Not natural." Now why would a grandmother say this about her granddaughter unless she thought she was altered in some way that made her radically different from everyone else? Like cloning.

Also, Lily often talks about how she accepts when she will die around Jenna, something she never says around her daughter, Claire, meaning that she thought Claire should accept losses, possibly of Jenna. At first, I just interpreted this as Jenna losing so much as her life, and not remembering anything, and the random ominous conversation because Lily was kind of random, but as I read on, I saw more and more odd evidence, leaving me to the cloning conclusion.

For instance, the present-day Jenna doesn't have a scar, as she saw in the video of her as a ten year old. A large and obvious scar would at least be slightly visible only ten years later. If a cloned body was made of Jenna, without all her injuries, the scar wouldn't be present. Another reason why I think this is that none of Jenna's friends have tried to contact her. This shows that in the very least, her Claire and Lily, almost abducted Jenna away from her old life in Boston, cutting all connections. Even if this explanation was true, this would raise more questions. If her friends believed her to be dead, then they wouldn't try to find her, or talk to her, right?

Also, when Allys is talking about the control of the school, she leads to the "Federal Science Ethics Board." Through the conversation, she clearly states human cloning was attempted and succeeded. She also expresses her disstress over how far human preservation will go, and how it at one point just becomes too unnatural, which shows some people share a view with Lily. The thing that interested me most was that human brains are the most taboo and expensive organ to be transplanted.

Allys says that "Only biodigital enhancement up to forty-nine percent is allowed to restore some lost function and that's it." This would explain why Jenna lost much of her personality, and all of her memories. On how her family got the permission to take the brain from old-Jenna's body, her father invented BioGel. Lily stated that Jenna's family was "filthy rich", which would probably cover the brain, and be enough to pay to get Jenna cloned and her brain to be put "on ice", so to speak, with BioGel. Who knows, Jenna could even be experimental, which would explain the man at the church spying and photographing her when she was with Ethan.

All this compiled just make me more and more confident that Jenna is some sort of clone. This book makes me excited to read it, and I can't wait to finish it and see what really happened, and see if I got it right.

Update: "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson

I think so far Wintergirls is a really great book. Like Speak, it deals with really current and modern issues tactfully, but is still truthful, and doesn't sugar-coat them.

One thing I find interesting is the contrast in the eating disorders of Lia and Cassie. Lia doesn't eat at all, and Cassie goes through the cycle of binging and purging. I would think that these two types of eating disorders would depend on the type of person, and that Lia would be grossed out by Cassie. She seems like a neater, secretive person, and her self-infliction shows she's very internal and secretive.

Cassie, on the other hand, seemed more like a wild girl in her character in general, and ate a lot, especially around Lia.

Just their personalities alone shouldn't be really that compatible, but they were still sisters in eating disorder. I don't think they met because of their disorders, but it made them closer. Another thing I'm asking every word I read of this book is how could best friends let each other go through that?

I mean, the drama girl that screamed at Lia before the wake was right in a way. Lia didn't try to help. Of course, the drama girl didn't know that Lia was Cassie's weight loss partner, but didn't they both know it was wrong and unhealthy what they were doing? I mean, Lia is trying to hard in the book to lie about getting better, but she's already incredibly thin for her age. I don't think she's short either, so for her height, she's skinnier than a lot of models.

I think the use of the crossing out words is really effective as well, because it shows that Lia does want to be normal, her subconscious just can't convince her 'skinny side' of it. It delivers emotional lines without the compromising, "I think...", which in my opinion, always brought me out of the scene in the book.

I can't wait to finish Wintergirls really, even though I've barely given time to read it. I really want to see if Halse Anderson is coming out with any other realistic fiction books, or has previously. 

"Speak", by Laurie Halse Anderson

I think one symbol in Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is Melinda's lips. They represent Melinda's inability to speak about her traumatic experience, and physically represent the raw and hurt feelings she has towards them.

For instance, when Melinda is still repressing her acceptance that she was raped, her lips are a large part of the book. She always notes people commenting on them, how they're scabbed and chapped. She picks them and bites with them, making it worse by delayed healing. This represents Melinda delaying her healing from her rape by not taking initiative to heal her internal wounds. This makes Melinda's trauma worse, and she wasn't helping herself by avoiding it.

Towards the end of the book, Melinda has almost no thoughts about her lips. The scabbing is not even mentioned, and doesn't bite them anymore. This is also a time where Melinda accepts her experience, and wants to help herself. She starts the healing of her lips and her trauma from her assault. This also makes Melinda more confident and able to cope better, and become part of the society at her high school again.

This also symbolizes Melinda's character development physically, where you can see it if you pay close enough attention.

Speak is an amazing book. It represents a difficult topic well, and that's one of the reasons it became so popular. I loved the book, and really appreciate Halse Anderson's other work. I think that the book is so wittily written, harshly true and really just sad. It's a really strong story of redemption and healing, and shows that when you experience something traumatic it can haunt you forever.

Every should really read this book, and though it's a girl narrator, it's a really easily relatable character in general. I loved it!

Update: "The Reckoning" by Kelley Armstrong

I think one of the reasons Derek is so difficult in letting anyone close to him and showing it is that he's afraid he'll hurt them.

His experiences with hurting the boys at his old high school still haunts Derek, shown through his constant guilt. He's afraid he'll physically jeopardize his friends and "team", because he feels like he's a freak or some kind of mutant. When he paralyzed the bullies at his bully it made him appear tough and made others fear him. This was almost the opposite of what he wanted, as Derek just wants to be accepted, like many teens do.

When his dad ran away, Derek lost one of the only people who accepted him fully, and he was able to be himself around. He already believed Simon thought he was a monster of some kind because of his attack on the boys who bullied Simon, even though Derek still loved his brother, and Simon loved him. Derek seemed to have lost a lot of his confidence and became an even more guarded and quiet person. This also caused him to be a more protective of his loved ones, which made him even more aggressive appearing towards others.

This is what made him so unapproachable to Chloe, and any other people his age (besides Simon). Though he doesn't want to be, he's seen as a big, unsocial creep. It's what made Simon seem so annoying to Chloe.

Chloe is also what changes this in Derek. She's able to stand up to him, which makes him feel less of a "bully", a monster, and an intimidating force. She helps him reestablish his self-esteem and makes him want to come out of his shell.

The character change is also caused from the change in Derek's situation. Him moving around and constantly running, needing to depend on others for help and teamwork, makes him change in his solidarity as well.

I can't wait to finish The Reckoning... so excited. It's really great, and love to