Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

So, I finally gave in…I absolutely adore this TV show. I’ve fallen in love with The Lying Game books and show (though, I am a book behind in this series). And I’ve been watching “Pretty Little Liars” with the intensity that I watch shows like “Castle” or “Bones.” Seriously, this show is addicting! I started reading this first book in the series a long time ago. I read the majority of the book in a bookstore, waiting for a ride, but for some unknown, mysteriously dumb reason I never picked it up again. What was I thinking?

I’m not sure if I like the books or the show more. Granted, I have that visual aid problem where you watch the show or movie first, and then of course picture all the characters exactly as the actors portray them. So, when Emily was supposed to have red/blonde hair, I was like, “Ew. No.” But that’s okay.

For those of you who live in a cave, or just haven’t given in yet (by the way, you should!), Pretty Little Liars is the story of four girls. The four girls were once five, but on one night in seventh grade, one girl (Alison) goes missing. Aria is the artsy, funky, and unique girl who goes through various phases and various hairstyles. Emily is the athlete. Hanna is the girl who wishes she were Alison. And Spencer is the over-achieving Ivy-bound student. Alison brought them all together. She was super social, bossy, over-achieving, smart, athletic, and unique. She had all the best qualities of all the girls in one package. Yet, she was also kind of evil.

She got the girls to do a lot of things they regret now. And there were a lot of mean girl games they played and people who suffered because of their meanness. When Alison goes missing, the girls’ group pretty much disintegrates. Alison kept them all together. She also was the one who knew the most about everyone. She seemed to somehow always be the one there with one of the girls when something terrible happened or the one to be told the terrible thing first. For instance, she was there with Aria when Aria saw her dad “involved” with a younger woman/student in his car. And Alison was the only one who knew that Spencer had a little thing with Melissa’s (Spencer’s sister) boyfriend. And Alison was the only one to ever know that Emily preferred kissing girls. She was also the only one who knew that Hanna would sometimes binge eat and then make herself throw up.

So when Alison was out of the picture, all the girls lost the one person who knew their deepest secrets. And they kind of all stopped talking to each other. Aria and her family moved to Europe for while (with her dad who took his sabbatical). Spencer went back to focusing on school. Hanna went from fat girl to most popular girl in school (with a new best friend, Mona).  She kind of does become the new Alison. And Emily mostly just hangs out with her swim team. Stuff all changes though when Aria moves back to town.

All the girls start getting messages sent to them (usually in text message format) from someone who sounds too much like Alison and who signs their name, A. And all the girls start getting into serious trouble for things they weren’t getting in trouble for before. Hanna gets busted by the police for shoplifting. Emily makes friends with the new girl who has moved into Alison’s new house and begins to think that she shouldn’t be dating her boyfriend any more. Spencer gets involved with her sister’s new boyfriend. And Aria falls in love with her English teacher, who seems to love her back. And while all this is happening, they all receive messages from A, telling them to watch their backs, and letting them know that not only does someone know what they are doing, but someone knows all their past secrets that only one person was supposed to know as well.

And when it gets to the point where the girls pretty much all think A can be no one but Alison, and Alison must have come back, Alison’s dead body is found in the back of her old house.

The suspense, the drama, the blackmailing, the dead body, and the secrets all add up to make one seriously addicting story! And what really makes this story work are the characters. The girls are each so different and each have some serious problems that they bring to the drama table. There are moments when I was pretty sure I hated all of them, and then there were other moments when I cried for each of them. I still can’t get over the fact that Spencer was the one who got in trouble for messing around with her sister’s boyfriend. Why didn’t the boyfriend get in trouble? Seriously, her parents were so pissed at Spencer, when technically if the guy slept with her it would be considered rape. What parents could be that awful and that pissed at a rape victim? They wouldn’t even listen to her. Granted, she didn’t actually sleep with the guy, but still, it came pretty close.

I also kind of hate Aria and Ezra’s (the teacher) relationship. And based off the show, I know they stay together a long time. Aria would be my favorite character if she weren’t promoting a sexual relationship with her teacher (which would also technically be considered rape if/when sex gets involved). If anything this story really says how much older guys are into teen girls…

What I like that the book does better than the show is the character development. It was really interesting to read about each girls’ separate lives away from the drama. It seems like a much longer period of time before they re-connect in the book. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like in the show, not as much time has passed since Alison first disappeared.  And in the book, this allows for their individuality to stand out even more; it shows how the girls kind of each have to grow up alone.

I really enjoyed this book. It does seriously give some bad messages to girls about a lot of things. Here’s a list: eating disorders, popularity, bullying, relationships with teachers, relationships with adults, shop-lifting, driving drunk, drinking, smoking (which is not something they do in the show!), and I can actually keep going…I can see why some parents would be hesitant to encourage their young teenage daughters from reading this. However, it makes for some amazing drama! It’s realistic. The author doesn’t sugarcoat things. There is some amazing character writing. The suspense can get anyone, and I mean anyone (boy, girl, young, old) hooked. The intense topics add to the overall feel of the book in a good way despite the bad messages. And overall, I still give this a 9/10. It’s just so much fun to read, and so, so unputdownable.

Waiting On Wednesday (13)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week, I am waiting on The Reece Malcom List by Amy Spalding (2/12/13):

Description on GoodReads:

“Devan knows very little about Reece Malcolm: she's a bestselling, media-shy author, she lives in Los Angeles, and, oh yeah, she's Devan's mother. Each of these facts are short entries on the list Devan's been composing since her father died and she was shipped off to live with a woman she's never met.

While Devan tiptoes around getting to know her mother and settling into the home Reece shares with her boyfriend, she's at least thrilled to find a place for herself in a high school for the arts nearby. Joining show choir and getting a lead part in the fall musical are easy when you're as talented as Devan -- making friends and pining for fellow new-student Sai are more delicate mine-fields to maneuver.

As opening night draws near, Sai and Devan's friendship gets more complicated, and the Reece Malcolm list gets a shocking new entry. The problem with being so close to having it all is the pain of losing everything.”

I actually only just learned of this book today while “wasting” some time on GoodReads. I fell in love with the cover. What’s not to love about a girl laying down outside, holding a book out? Also, I love that it involves musicals and a performing arts school. It just sounds like a good, fresh contemporary YA, and we can always use more of those!

The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini

I’m reviewing an ARC sent to me by the author (!) I’ve been a fan of Ned Vizzini since I was in high school, and I feel so lucky to be have been able to get this review copy. Thank you, Ned. And thank you, Eti, for just being awesome as always. The finished book comes out today.

This book stands out from Vizzini’s other books for me because it involves a lot more fantasy. But, like his other more contemporary novels, he writes very real, believable characters. And while I swoon for a lot of the male characters written in the typical YA fantasy, there’s a part of me that always knows these love interests are impossible. Even the characters with tails and sparkly nails (that are not painted that way) in The Other Normals, just have this feeling of realness to them.

Any way, it’s about Perry, a guy obsessed with the made up RPG (roll playing game), Creatures and Caverns. Too bad for him, his parents seem really intent on sending him to an overnight summer camp, where he will have to socially interact with real people as compared to the made up characters he creates in game. Perry doesn’t really have any friends, his parents refer to him as a late bloomer, and the only person he genuinely seems to interact with (besides a sometimes friend who plays Creatures and Caverns with him, next to an Emergency Exit) is his brother who has a drinking problem.

On the first day at camp, Perry’s Creatures and Caverns supplies (one giant book and one pewter figurine) get confiscated and Perry gets into a fight with a gang member. And just as it seems nothing will ever go right for poor Perry, he sees a creature he knows to only exist in his game. Perry than follows the creature (aka: Mortin Enaw) into the Land of the Other Normals, where he meets some good friends, goes on adventures, and learns that to save a princess in that world which would in turn stop a lot of violence from happening, he will need to be brave in the real world. He will have to actually kiss the girl he had just met before traveling to the World of the Other Normals, in order to save the princess.

Apparently people in the world Perry has grown up in correspond to people in the World of the Other Normals, and what you do in one world effects how things work in the other. Between learning how to socially interact in his world and trying to get a certain girl (who corresponds with the princess) to kiss him, Perry goes back and forth between worlds and problems. He and his friends never seem to manage to stay safe long in the World of the Other Normals. There’s a lot of captures, there’s magical creatures (with fish heads and human bodies or dog heads and human bodies and so forth), there’s prison scenes, camping trips, people barbeques, whorehouses, and friends with substance abuse problems (in the form of pebbles).

And then in the “real” world, Perry deals with standing out as the one white, nerdy guy at camp. There’s a lot of fighting (sometimes with war hammers and sometimes with knives). There’s also a lot of teen boy thoughts! Perry definitely sounds like a real teenage boy with real sexual thoughts. And there was this great mixture of fantasy elements on top of the realistic ones. I loved all the times Perry would compare his life to the game he played. He kept giving himself numbers for what he though his strength would be or his honor would be, as characters are ranked in RPGs. I loved how going to the World of the Other Normals spiked Perry’s confidence in his own world. I mean he legitimately learned how to carry himself, how to make friends, how to talk to girls, how to fight, and how to really grow up because of his experiences with the World of the Other Normals (and the game).

I also loved that when it came down to kissing the princess, he actually didn’t want to (though I won't tell you if he did or not)! He didn't want to because he was too head over heels for a different girl. I loved how quickly Sam was willing to believe what was happening to his friend, and I loved how real all the side characters, like Sam, were too. They helped make this whole story work as well as it did. Also, the language was spot on! This author is definitely not afraid to talk like a teen or make teenagers look bad at certain points; he doesn’t sugarcoat anything. And again this just adds to that realness.

It took me a little while to get into it in the beginning. I think this is because it took me a little while to like Perry. I immediately felt sorry for him. How can you not feel bad for a kid who plays an RPG by himself in a stairway? But, he was a little to naïve/ignorant of things for me to actually like him. However, as the story goes on and Perry learns more about actual people, I grew to love him as a main character, and once I loved him, I couldn’t put the book down. His willingness to eventually see that there were a lot of things he needed to learn made him so much more likeable.

I also really, really love that someone has finally written a book for gamers! I seriously think there is a giant underrepresented group of teens in YA literature. I knew so many teens growing up who could have been Perry. I do think those not familiar with this bit of teen culture might not understand everything. I already read someone refer to Creatures and Caverns as an online game, which is not how I saw it at all. I saw it as another Dungeons and Dragons.

While I feel like there will inevitably be some misunderstandings with an older crowd, I’m glad Vizzini didn’t over describe things like character sheets and the logistics of these kinds of games because a lot of the young people who will be reading this, and hopefully be drawn to this, will already know that stuff. And too much detail in that respect can be an easy way to loose young people.

All in all I thought this was such a fun read! I loved the mixing of fantasy and contemporary fiction. I loved that it was about a gamer. The characters were amazing. It took me a little time to really like the main character, but I eventually grew to think of him as awesome too. This gets a 9/10 from me.

Dearly Departed by Lia Habel

What a crazy, wonderful book! It was recommended to me a long time ago (Thanks, Christina!), and I knew I would love it because: zombies, Victorian time period mixed with the future(…explain more later), dystopia elements, girls fighting past their limited boundaries, and spread of a virus/aka: zombie apocalypse, all equate to awesome in my book. The one weird thing about the description that was sort of off-putting was the zombie/living girl romance. The publishers really pushed this as a new forbidden romance type YA book (Hello, pink cover!). And it kind of prevented me from reading it sooner.

The book was way less romance heavy than I thought it would be (based off of the description and girly cover), and I was thankful. It was more about this crazy society in the future that actually chose to live in a Victorian-esque life style versus a more modern one. There’s modern technology like computers and TV’s; it’s just that’ the TV’s are in the horse drawn carriages. And while people have cell phones, women still need to wear corsets and aim to marry good husbands.

I very much related to Nora, the main character, though this probably was because I kept substituting the “a” for an “i,” and making the main character named Nori, instead of Nora. Though, it’s also hard not to immediately feel empathy for someone who just lost her father and prefers to watch old war documentaries to going to dances and husband searching. Unfortunately, Nora lives with an aunt who is all about husband searching. She apparently has already spent most of the money Nora’s father had left for her family, and is now relying on Nora to do what any attractive lady should want to do.

Everything changes when Nora’s house is attacked by zombies. She climbs up a rose bush, finds her father’s gun, gets to the top of the roof of her house and is a pretty good shot, considering she doesn’t know that the only way to kill or even defer a zombie is by shooting them in the head (or cutting their head off).  Soon, Nora is rescued by a band of more normal-seeming zombies.  There’s a big section of the book where Nora learns to trust that not all the zombies are the same. A lot of zombies are very much like the humans they were before they died. And all the good zombies Nora grows to befriend are connected with her father’s work.

Apparently, the father she has been mourning for a year is actually alive, or well, undead. The government has been hiding its knowledge of the spreading zombie disease. There’s all sorts of political problems involving the prime minister. The bad zombies also have an army, and their major intent is to destroy Nora and her father. There’s also the somewhat brain dead zombies that just want to eat people. There’s the Royals (the people living in Victorian society) and there’s the Punks (those that live outside it), and there’s soldiers and zombies it seems on both sides. Overall, it’s a very good thing that Nora knew her military information.

Also, Habel likes to switch point of views a lot. And at first this really annoyed me. I loved Nori (cough…), I mean Nora and was angry whenever I had to read about anyone else. And before you go thinking that this means it only goes back and forth between Nora and the good zombie she’s meant to fall in love with, don’t make assumptions. Habel goes into the minds of Nora’s best friend, Pamela, who by the way is completely awesome. She does things how she assumes Nora would and in doing so, saves the lives of multiple people, gets her family to safety in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, kills zombies without even realizing the rule about needing to decapitate them, defies the Victorian female stereotypes all over the board, and really just made the book so much more fun than it would have been without her!

Sometimes the chapters are in a bad soldier’s point of view, which allows readers to seriously see how prejudiced people can be against all zombies (good and bad). And sometimes the point of view shifts to Nora’s undead father, who has been captured and blackmailed into scientifically figuring out a cure. And well, how can I not get sucked into blackmail, captures, revolutions, backstabbing, zombie cures, an apocalypse, and rescue missions? Seriously, this book has it all.

One of the common threads I see in people’s reviews who don’t love this book as much as I do, is that there is too much going on. And I get what they’re saying. Sometimes there is so much going on, I lose track of my focus and I’m never really sure where the author wants me to focus –what threads are important and necessary for my overall understanding and enjoyment? But, I kind of liked the mayhem. I liked figuring out for myself what direction to go in. However, I understand this totally not working for a lot of readers.

I absolutely loved the characters in here. I loved the points of view shifts (even when it goes into the head of the bad guy). I loved the fighting. I loved the politics. I even loved the somewhat off-putting zombie/person romance. In the case of Nora and Bram, it just worked. You’ll have to read it to understand. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that Bram just is completely amazing and has such a kind soul. The book does go a little overboard with its various components, but for me this added to the overall fun and zombie craziness as a whole. I give this one a 10/10. Just know going into it, that it is a little chaotic and that it is so not all about romance. Also, you can’t be squeamish with this one.

A Good Week in Books (23)

I’ve had pretty light book week. My week has been a little crazy with work, family things, and holidays, but next week is already looking really good. I know I have some good review books coming! This week, I received one new book on Net Galley (Thank you, Penguin Young Reader’s Group). I actually checked out a physical YA library book (lately the library books I go for have been digital or have been picture books to prepare lesson plans with). And I won a book I have been dying to read (Thank you, Christina!).

Sirens by Janet Fox (eGalley)
Every Day by David Levithan (library book)
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (won from A Reader of Fictions)

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

I’m reviewing an ARC, but the book just came out this week (so go, get it!). I absolutely loved Stiefvater’s werewolf books! I know the books have gotten a lot of mixed reviews, but I just fell in love with Stiefvater’s writing style and character development. Her characters (while capable of rather remarkable things) are always just so authentic; they read like actual people you might know. And I love soaking up her words like a sponge, reading her books nice and slow and letting everything sink in.

However, the one book everyone seemed to love but me was The Scorpio Races. I just didn’t get it. Why did everyone love this one, and not love the beautiful werewolf books? Seriously, I am still baffled by its reception. Any way, I had no idea what to expect with this one. Would it be more like her first series or more like the book I don’t get? I wasn’t sure I was even going to read it because the premise for it didn’t really grab me. It sounded so much like other things I have read, and I wasn’t sure if I could let any other books ruin my love for this author (who definitely knows her craft).

I am so glad that I gave this a try! I loved it! She has wowed me with her characters (no big surprise there), she has wowed me with her writing style again, and she’s finally wowed me with her story too! I’ve learned that this hasn’t been a good year for publishers trying to get across what their books are about. The description made this book sound like it would be another Sam/Grace type romance, but the romance was not a big part of this story at all. I mean, it was there, but it was mostly just hinted at with visions of the future and possible what-ifs to come later in the series.

Stiefvater goes back and forth among characters again. There’s Blue (I think I liked the name, Puck better), Gansey, Adam, and Whelk who all get some chapters to themselves, though mostly it centers around Blue, a girl who has grown up relatively normal amongst a family of psychics. Blue has grown up believing in the supernatural, well, because she lives in the supernatural. She knows her family (and the many women living in her house) can all do things that normal people cannot explain. And she also knows that she helps them do it. All Blue needs to do is sit in at a reading and she makes the readings go a lot more smoothly (or as her mother calls it, “louder.”)

She has also grown up in a house of women who have routinely told her never to fall in love. It has been predicted early on that whoever Blue kisses (and falls in love with) will die. On St. Mark’s Eve (April 24^th), everything changes. Blue goes to the cemetery every year with her mother so her mother can see all the people who will die this coming year. She sees the ghosts of those who will soon pass away. And Blue helps her see them. This year though, Blue sees one ghost too.

She speaks to him and learns that his name is Gansey. There are only two reasons for why Blue would see this ghost (and none of the others, who apparently all walk through her and do something to her energy, making her go to sleep for a long time); either he is the boy she will fall in love with or she will end up killing him. Gansey also believes in the supernatural, or at least he really wants to believe in it.

Gansey is on this ultimate quest to look for Glendower, a medieval legend who is rumored to have never died, but instead to have been asleep for centuries. He’s supposed to grant one favor to the person who is able to find him. And the only reason Gansey is a Raven boy (named for his school) is because he has tracked down everything he has learned about Glendower to this location of the world.

Gansey has a crew of Raven boys who all work on this quest together. And while not a lot is said about what favor each boy wants, it’s fun guessing what it is each would ask for from the mysterious Glendower. Stiefvater magically connects everything! She connects the boys’ quest with Blue and her ability to magnify other people’s powers. She connects the energy of psychics to the energy of the earth. There’s family mystery, vague predictions, and so many different stories woven together. One story revolves around the teacher Whelk, who has his own experiences going after Glendower that are just so creepy.

There’s human sacrifices, mysterious fathers, and a lot of research and investigating! Believe it or not, Blue doesn’t fall for Gansey right away (even though I did!); she falls for his best friend: Adam, another Raven boy. She connects with him right away and he gets her involved with the adventures. Adam and Blue live on the same side of (the rather Foot Loose kind of divided) town. They both see money in a way that none of the other Raven boys do. But it soon becomes clear that even though Blue and Adam hold hands sometimes and like to work side by side while investigating magical forests, that Blue and Gansey are meant to be.

Adam’s story is powerful too though. He comes from an abusive family and he has such an interesting friendship with Gansey. And while I’m not really talking about the other boys, they were fantastic too. All of them were such interesting, unique characters. I loved the other story from the past about the two other boys looking for Glendower. I loved the mystery and obsession of Glendower himself. I loved the slight supernatural moments. I loved all the stuff about energy. I loved everything written about power and money and how everyone views it so differently. Blue’s family was so much fun to read about too!

But the best moments, hands down, were the ones were Blue and the boys were exploring and learning about Glendower together. Some of the scenes were pure magic. The prophecies, the predictions, the trees that speak Latin(!), the ghosts, the politics, and all the characters just pushed this story along so beautifully! I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know things the whole time. There was one big twist that I did not guess at all! I literally went back in my reading to make sure that Maggie wasn’t pulling my leg.

I cannot wait for the second book in this series, though as with the Shiver books, it’s hard not having a feeling for how it will all eventually have to go down, and you can’t help but hope for some other outcome. This was well written, the characters were fantastic, the story was intriguing, and there were so many smaller elements that all wove into everything so perfectly and made this book just stand out for me. I give it a 10/10.

Waiting on Wednesday (12)

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Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week, I am waiting on Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier (10/30/12):

Description on GoodReads:

“Gwen’s life has been a rollercoaster since she discovered she was the Ruby, the final member of the secret time-traveling Circle of Twelve. In between searching through history for the other time-travelers and asking for a bit of their blood (gross!), she’s been trying to figure out what all the mysteries and prophecies surrounding the Circle really mean.

At least Gwen has plenty of help. Her best friend Lesley follows every lead diligently on the Internet. James the ghost teaches Gwen how to fit in at an eighteenth century party. And Xemerius, the gargoyle demon who has been following Gwen since he caught her kissing Gideon in a church, offers advice on everything. Oh, yes. And of course there is Gideon, the Diamond. One minute he’s very warm indeed; the next he’s freezing cold. Gwen’s not sure what’s going on there, but she’s pretty much destined to find out.”

So, I only just finished the first book in the series, and I’m already dying for book 2! I loved the first book way more than I was expecting to. And the sequel just sounds so good. I really want to know more about the mysteries and prophecies! And I want more Gideon, please! Also, I’m really liking the new covers. It’s hard to mess up a girl in a pretty dress, right?