Two Perspectives Done Right

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

I bought this book for two reasons: 1 it's a signed copy and 2 I loved All the Bright Places by the same author. I was hoping this would be as good, and it was.

First, we have Jack. He is bi-racial, sports a righteous afro, and can't distinguish people by how they look. Meaning he has to find identifying features for everyone in his life, including his parents and siblings. He can't remember a time that he wasn't like that, but doesn't know if he was born that way or became that way due to an accident he had when he was six. He's a bit of an asshole, but that's more of a mechanism to make up for his handicap. By the way, no one knows about this handicap.

Then, we have Libby. She was once known as the Fattest Teenager in America, and had to be cut out of her house. Her mother died when she was ten, it was unexpected. She was also bullied when she was in grade school. Libby's way of dealing with this was to eat to fill the emptiness inside her. At the present time, she has lost 250 lbs, and is returning to school. People make her life miserable due to her size, but Libby is valiantly trying to make it.

One day, Jack comes up and wraps his arms around Libby in what is called Fat Girl Rodeo. Jack does it to keep his friends from doing it and humiliating Libby, and she punches him. They end up in a counseling session that lasts several weeks, and have to fulfill community service, which causes them to form an unlikely friendship.

What I like about this book is that it tackles bullying in a real way. It's less about Libby being overweight than it is about teenagers being assholes, which is something I see on the regular.

There's so much more going on in this book than what I have presented here, but to catch it all, you need to read it.

A New Look at an Old Debate

Unwind by Neal Schusterman

I had put off reading this book because every adult I spoke to said it was disturbing. One even said it was graphically descriptive (negative, Ghost Rider). My students, on the other hand, raved about this book, almost to a one. So, I paid a dollar and bought a copy. I am so glad I did.

Obviously, this takes place sometime in the future, after the Heartland Wars. These wars were fought over the abortion argument. What came as a result of these wars were what is known as unwinding. If a woman gets pregnant, she goes through the pregnancy and delivers the baby. One of two things then happen: 1 she raises the baby herself or 2 she storks it. Storking a baby involves leaving a baby on the front porch of a house without getting caught. If the mother gets caught, she has to raise the baby herself. If she is not caught, the family that finds the baby has to raise it. As a result, there are a ton of unwanted babies who make it to at least age thirteen.

Once a child is thirteen, parents can choose to have them unwound. There are a variety of reasons why a parent may choose to have their child unwound. One reason is that the kid is a troublemaker, and they are just done. Once a child turns eighteen, they cannot be unwound.

So, I know you're asking what unwinding means exactly. Basically, children who are scheduled to be unwound become organ donors. Their body parts are harvested, and these parts go to people who need them. Creepy, no?

Connor is fifteen or sixteen (I don't really remember). He's a bit of a troublemaker, and doesn't bring home the grades his parents want. They decide to have him unwound, and so he runs away. In the process, he causes a huge bus accident, where Risa, an orphan from a State Home who is scheduled to be unwound, escapes, and he kidnaps Lev, a tithe. (Tithes are children who are born and raised to be unwound as their family's tithe to God. Like tithes at church.) These three end up on the run, or AWOL.

Lev is not happy that he was "rescued." He always knew what was in store for him, and he was ok with it. When Connor and Risa were hiding out with him, he escapes and tries to turn them in. Lev ends up on the road with a guy named CyFi, and learns to live off what is available. Connor and Risa end up in a warehouse safe house for AWOL unwinds. Shortly after that, Connor and Risa end up at an airplane graveyard in Arizona with about 400 other unwinds. All they have to do is make it until they are eighteen, and then the threat of unwinding is gone.

Will they make it? You seriously have to read this book. So, so good.

A Beastly Knockoff

The League of Beastly Dreadfuls by Holly Grant

This one came in my Harry Potter themed Lit-Cube. Not sure why, as it is in no way related to Harry Potter. In fact, it is more like The Series of Unfortunate Events books by Lemony Snicket, but I think that is mostly due to the way it is told. From time to time, the reader is addressed.

Anastasia is kidnapped from school one day by two older women claiming to be her great aunts. They tell her that her parents have been killed in a freak vacuuming accident. Anastasia falls for it, and ends up in their creepy, old Victorian house. A house that used to be St. Agony's Asylum. That bodes well, no?

Anyway, Anastasia is locked in her room every night, and asked to do weird chores, like catching leeches. One day while overhearing her "aunts," Anastasia finds out that they intend to kill her and feed her to some beast. Anastasia meets Ollie and Quentin, who the aunts have imprisoned for nefarious reasons as well. The three of them decide they must escape, so they make plans to do so.

This is the beginning of a series I am not likely to continue. This was written for upper elementary school students, so I wouldn't even put this in my classroom. I just wasn't impressed. It was written too much like something I enjoyed, but I felt that this author tried to hard.

Modern Day P&P

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick

If you've been following me for a while, you have probably figured out that I love Jane Austen, specifically, Pride and Prejudice. I am a sucker for anything related to anything Jane, so when my favorite subscription service, Lit-Cube, offered a special edition Jane Austen box on my birthday, I jumped on it. This book was in that box.

I suspected I would love this book, simply because it was a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice. What I liked best was that everything that happened in the original novel happened here. Every character in the original was present, though not necessarily in ways you would expect. For example, there are only three Bennet sisters in this--Jane, Lizzie, and Lydia. No worries though. Mary makes an appearance as a cousin, and Kitty is Lydia's pet cat.

Another thing I liked was that modern Lydia was not nearly as annoying as original Lydia. Her story ends a bit differently too, but that is only to be expected.

I liked this enough that I will probably seek out other books in this series.

A Sweet Holiday Story

What Light by Jay Asher

It's no secret that I love this author. I have read his debut novel more times than I can count, and own multiple copies. His second book was nice, though not enough to make me reread it. This one though, I can see rereading again in the future.

Sierra is from Oregon, where her family owns a tree farm. Every year at Thanksgiving, she and her family travel to California, where her parents met and fell in love, to work their tree lot. This might be the last year they do that, so Sierra wants to make the most of her month there.

This year, she meets Caleb, a young man who once had a bad day that continues to haunt him. Sierra is able to look past that, but worries that a long distance relationship won't work. Against her better judgement, she starts falling for him.

What I love about this book is the sweet, sincere realness of a first love. Everyone should be able to experience something this wonderful. Reading this makes you feel that there is something to hope for. I loved it.

A New Spin on Classic Horror

Teen Frankenstein by Chandler Baker

Wow, that was a long time between posts. Not sure what's wrong lately, but I don't want to read. It's a weird feeling, and one I can't remember ever experiencing before.

Victoria "Tor" Frankenstein is a budding scientist, living in rural Texas. She and her best friend, Owen, a working through an inordinate amount of dead rodents in their efforts to reanimate them. So far, every experiment has been a failure. Then one rainy night, Tor accidentally hits a teenaged boy. He dies, but she brings him back.

She does such a good job reanimating this guy that he is able to almost seamlessly pass as an average teenager at Tor's high school. He's even a top notch football player. While the guy, Adam, is busy being an average teenager with Tor and Owen, someone is killing teenaged boys and removing parts of their bodies. Tor is worried that Adam is either the killer or a potential victim.

As the story unfolds, we see Tor come out of the social cocoon she has created for herself, and see her solve a mystery. Who is killing these boys? Will Adam ever find out how he came to be the way he now is? Will Adam ever find out who he was before? All this is revealed within the pages of this book.