The Way the Light Bends

Jensen, Cordelia. The Way the Light Bends. Philomel Books, 2018.

Linc is the artistic sister. She loves photography, and her mind is always seeing things in motion and the way objects can capture a moment. Holly, Linc's sister who was adopted when Linc was just a baby, is the smart one. She is doing fantastically at school, is athletic, and constantly pleases their parents. Meanwhile, Linc's mom only ever seems to nag Linc and point out how she could be more like Holly if she just Tried Harder. Linc and Holly drift apart as Linc secretly applies to an elite art school and sneaks out of the house to go to classes, meanwhile trying to figure out how to convince her parents to let her pursue her dreams.

This is a novel in verse, and as such may appeal to teens who wouldn't otherwise tackle a book of this length. It reads quickly, and the poetic elements are appropriate as Linc is the narrator through the entire story. I have taught students like Linc, students who don't excel academically not because of lack of effort, but rather because their gifts lie somewhere beyond acadamia. I wasn't that surprised at the "big reveal" at the end of the story, but as I am not the target audience, I am guessing some teen readers may be surprised. I did appreciate how the reveal was treated, as well as the presence of Linc's best friend who is dating a girl. Her presence in the story is not a coming out plot or a place to discuss homophobia; rather, just like any other pair of best friends, Linc and her friend discuss break-ups and hookups and go on double dates, etc.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: one character steals his parents pot lollipops, which he and Linc then eat.
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Letting Go of Gravity; You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone; The Language Inside;

Run

Keplinger, Kody. Run. Scholastic Press, 2016.

Agnes is a good girl. She always follows her parents' rules and never asks for exceptions. She knows the rules are there to protect her because she's legally blind. Bo, on the other hand, is the type of girl Agnes has been told to avoid. She comes from a family with a bad reputation and her mom is high on meth more often than she is sober. But when Bo and Agnes become friends, both of them realize that there may be more to life than what they have been given so far. It will take both of them stepping out of their comfort zones to realize the importance of their friendship.

This is the book which recently caused quite the brouhaha in the YA and LGBT community. VOYA listed this book as appropriate for older teens, citing mature themes including bisexuality. That entire issue has been discussed elsewhere, so that's all I'm going to say about it. That being said, this is a hard book to read. The characters are dealing with a lot, especially Bo, who just wants to graduate and get out of her house and avoid being sent into foster care again. There is mention of drugs, there is drinking, there is strong language - all of these things cause me to recommend this book to older teens. I wanted this book to be more than it was, to dive deeper. I wanted Agnes to rage against her parents instead of accepting her punishment. I wanted Bo to escape again in order to avoid foster care, as that seemed more fitting with her character. I'd add it to my collection if I had unlimited space, but otherwise I'll just suggest teens put it on hold.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: alcohol and drug use by adults and teens, slut-shaming of Bo (even though she's a virgin), Agnes has sex with Bo's cousin, strong language
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit, Not Otherwise Specified, Just Call My Name

The Carnival at Bray

Foley, Jessie. The Carnival at Bray. Elephant Rock Productions, 2014

Maggie's family has moved to Ireland so her mother can live with the husband-of-the-month. Maggie misses Chicago, her grandmother, and most importantly, her Uncle Kevin. Uncle Kevin is quite unconventional and continually encourages Maggie to live life to the fullest, including suggesting that she travel to Rome to see Nirvana in concert. When her uncle dies, Maggie decides to fulfill his wish and travel to Rome, no matter the cost.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The story itself is not a bad one, per se, and I appreciated the "follow your dreams" theme and the road-trip-esque portion where Maggie and Eoin go to Rome. I was glad that Maggie felt things deeply and decided to really live rather than just going through the motions and accepting her fate.

***SPOILERS ABOUND BEYOND THIS LINE***

What I thought could have been better: Why did we need a setting of 1993? No teenager alive in 2014 would have been alive in 1993, which means this book is tipping dangerously into historical fiction territory a la Eleanor & Park. Would it not have been possible for Maggie's uncle to be obsessed with another band or type of music, etc., and for this same story to take place in the 2010s, with Maggie listening to her iPod instead of a Discman? I was also bothered by Maggie's first sexual experience (which occurs in chapter 7, if you need to take care and skip it). It's borderline rape; she's very drunk, she doesn't really pay attention to what's going on, so I wouldn't call that consent at all. Afterward she seems unaffected, which I found really odd. Also, the sudden appearance of this scene can be very triggering for abuse survivors. I know it's a good contrast to later events, but it was very abrupt and rather early in the story and I almost - almost - put the book down right then.

Bottom line: This will probably be an easy book to book talk to teens, but the mature content means I will only recommend it to older teens or to readers I know well enough to know they can handle it. This is not a "oh, the kid has a book report, let's grab this and be done with it" kind of book.

Recommended for: older teens, new adults
Red Flags: graphic sex scene in chapter 7, language (in both standard American and Irish slang), lots of alcohol use by kids and adults both; Uncle Kevin is a drug addict; Eoin's mother suffers from schizophrenia and attempts to kill him
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Eleanor & Park, Just Call My Name, Golden Boy,Charm & Strange

Sway

Spears, Kat. Sway. St. Martin's Griffin, 2014.

Jesse Alderman can get you anything you want: a date to the prom, a term paper guaranteed to wow your teachers, protection from bullies, drugs, you name it. But whatever he gets you always comes with a price. Jesse spends his days making transactions and business deals with football players, nerds, and even the school's principal. But what happens when one of his customers asks to be set up with a girl that Jesse likes?

My synopsis made it sound like this story had a plot, which it actually didn't. It isn't until the end of the book that Jesse even realizes that he likes the girl, so most of the book is spent watching Jesse conduct various business transactions. He wasn't a very likable character, since pretty much everything he did came from ulterior motives, and there wasn't much to keep the story going at all. It was kind of like watching a reality TV show where there isn't a problem to be solved or anything but rather is a "day in the life" kind of scene. I kept reading because I wanted the story to get interesting, but I was greatly disappointed.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: drinking, drug use, mention of girls getting "roofied," violence, foul language, homophobic and ableist slurs
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Notes from the Midnight Driver, The Universe Versus Alex Woods

The Summer I Wasn't Me

Verdi, Jessica. The Summer I Wasn't Me. Sourcebooks Fire, 2014.

Have you watched the movie But I'm a Cheerleader? If you have, then you've already experienced this book, and in a way that is much more entertaining than the book itself actually is. Lexie's mom magically divines from Lexie's sketchbook that Lexie has a crush on her best friend, so she sends Lexie to New Horizons, a religious camp dedicated to turning gay kids into straight kids. Everything is stereotyped: the girls wear pink and learn how to do housework while the boys wear blue and learn about playing football. Much emphasis is put upon finding one's "father wound" - the big bad thing that must have happened to turn a person gay. Lexie is really trying because she wants to make her mom happy, but eventually she chooses to remain true to herself instead.

Similar to Caught in the Crossfire, this camp didn't seem very religious to me, nor did the campers themselves. I wasn't that surprised that Lexie decided to go to this camp to stop herself from causing her mom any more grief, but I was surprised that she was seventeen when she did it - her actions seem more like that of a fourteen or fifteen year old. The stereotyped "recovery" activities the teens had to do didn't surprise me, either, nor did the non-plot-twist of the camp director abusing one of the kids. The book has a Disney-esque happy ending, so it meshes nicely with the cheerleader movie, except this book is trying to be serious and the movie is obviously meant to be funny. I won't be adding this to my library's collection.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: gay-shaming language, one attempted rape, alcohol use, language, lots of heteronormative talk and actions (girls are forced to wear nightgowns instead of pajamas, etc.).
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Far From You

Sharpe, Tess. Far From You. 2014

Three years ago Sophie was in a car accident and nearly lost her life. Her subsequent recovery sparked an addiction to narcotics, which her parents attempted to cure by sending Sophie to live with her aunt for several months. Soon after Sophie's return, there's another accident, but this one involves murder. Used to Sophie's lies, no one will believe that she hasn't relapsed. Sophie needs to find her best friend's murderer before it's too late, and she might have to do this all by herself.

This book is told in chapters which alternate between present-day and stories from the past which relate to whatever's happening in the present. The labels at the beginning of each chapter, in addition to a change in font, make it fairly easy to follow along. I really enjoyed the mystery aspect of this story, and I tried to follow along and guess who the murderer was before the end of the book. (I was wrong.) This is a great, suspenseful story of a girl who happens to be bisexual; the focus is not on Sophie's coming-out but rather on her attempt to solve her best-friend/almost girlfriend's murder.

Recommended for: young adults
Red Flags: drug use, alcohol, sexual abuse
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alike Suggestions: The Name of the Star, Confessions of a Murder Suspect

The Impossible Knife of Memory

Anderson, Laurie. The Impossible Knife of Memory. 2014.

Haylee and her dad have been moving about the country to avoid dealing with the dad's PTSD, but he decides to settle down in his hometown so Haylee can go to a real school. While there, he starts to battle the PTSD demons more than he had before. Haylee is trying to live a normal life, adjust to high school, and take care of her father all at once.

I really, truly wanted to love this book. It's by one of my favorite authors, and the idea sounded great. It is a good book, and I think it's a good picture of living with someone with PTSD. But it's also very slow-paced, which is going to make it a hard sell to my students, and I had to force myself to keep reading even though the only thing that was going on was that Haylee had a hard life. Some of my students who like to read "books about kids with BIG problems" might enjoy this book.

Recommended for: older teens
Red Flags: language, violence, alcohol and drug use
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Fangirl

Rowell, Rainbow. Fangirl. St. Martin's Griffin, 2013.

Cath and Wren are heading off to college. Wren wants to be independent and live her own life, but Cath is not quite ready to let go and is surprised when she has a roommate who is not her twin. An avid Simon Snow fan, Cath writes fanfiction that is widely popular. As the final Simon Snow book's release looms, Cath has to balance her college classes, relationships, and her life within the fandom.

This book was a lot of fun to read. Rowell has a very approachable style of writing, and even though I am not a fan of romance books, I truly enjoyed the journey through this book and was disappointed when it was finished. An added bones are the excerpts from Simon Snow stories and fanfic that preface each chapter. I would quite easily and willingly add this book to my library's collection, as I could see it being very popular among my fans of romances.

Recommended for: young adults
Red Flags: alcohol use and abuse
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Mother, Mother

Zailckas, Koren. Mother, Mother. Crown, 2013. 

I don't even know where to start in my description of this book. The mom is a narcissistic nutcase who lives her life through her first child and lies and manipulates everyone so she can get her own way. When her oldest daughter gets pregnant, she guilts her into having an abortion and then guilts her into suicide for having an abortion. Then she covers up the girl's disappearance and tells everyone she ran away. Since daughter #2 is the black sheep of the family, the mom has her committed to a mental hospital so she can work on her latest project: Child #3. Her son, who is 12, has been diagnosed with Asperger's and a seizure disorder (after visits to three specialists because the first two wouldn't diagnose him), so mom home schools him, brushes and flosses his teeth, BATHES him, and picks out his clothes. Oh, and the dad turns to alcohol to avoid the entire family dynamic in all its awfulness.

This story is told in alternating perspectives of the two living children, so I would label this book as one with an unreliable narrator, too, since one kid's in a mental institution and the other one is being manipulated by the mother so that he lies to the police about how he was injured and doesn't know how to choose his own clothes for the day.

I hated reading about how horrible this mother was. I kept waiting for something awful to happen to her, and I finished the book just because I wanted to find out if everyone was able to escape her insanity (and to find out what really happened to Daughter #1 since we already knew the mom was a pathological liar). Crazy stuff. My students would LOVE this book, since they like books about people in horrible situations. I would not reread this one, since the mom drives me crazy, but it was very well-written.

Recommended for: young adults, fans of psychological thrillers
Red Flags: Dad's an alcoholic, Daughter #2 smokes while she's in the mental institution and does drugs beforehand, Daughter #1 commits suicide, Mom is uber-abusive to the entire family and drugs the dad and tries to kill Daughter #2, the son describes his masturbation habit
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-alikes: Broken by C.J. Lyons

Mother, Mother

Zailckas, Koren. Mother, Mother. Crown, 2013.

I don't even know where to start in my description of this book. The mom is a narcissistic nutcase who lives her life through her first child and lies and manipulates everyone so she can get her own way. When her oldest daughter gets pregnant, she guilts her into having an abortion and then guilts her into suicide for having an abortion. Then she covers up the girl's disappearance and tells everyone she ran away. Since daughter #2 is the black sheep of the family, the mom has her committed to a mental hospital so she can work on her latest project: Child #3. Her son, who is 12, has been diagnosed with Asperger's and a seizure disorder (after visits to three specialists because the first two wouldn't diagnose him), so mom home schools him, brushes and flosses his teeth, BATHES him, and picks out his clothes. Oh, and the dad turns to alcohol to avoid the entire family dynamic in all its awfulness.

This story is told in alternating perspectives of the two living children, so I would label this book as one with an unreliable narrator, too, since one kid's in a mental institution and the other one is being manipulated by the mother so that he lies to the police about how he was injured and doesn't know how to choose his own clothes for the day.

I hated reading about how horrible this mother was. I kept waiting for something awful to happen to her, and I finished the book just because I wanted to find out if everyone was able to escape her insanity (and to find out what really happened to Daughter #1 since we already knew the mom was a pathological liar). Crazy stuff. My students would LOVE this book, since they like books about people in horrible situations. I would not reread this one, since the mom drives me crazy, but it was very well-written.

Recommended for: young adults, fans of psychological thrillers
Red Flags: Dad's an alcoholic, Daughter #2 smokes while she's in the mental institution and does drugs beforehand, Daughter #1 commits suicide, Mom is uber-abusive to the entire family and drugs the dad and tries to kill Daughter #2, the son describes his masturbation habit
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-alikes: Broken by C.J. Lyons

A Corner of White

Moriarty, Jaclyn. A Corner of White. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2013.

This book has two stories in it.  The first is Madeleine's.  She and her mother ran off to London, leaving a life of luxury to live in a small apartment where her mother sews for a living and they eat nothing but beans. Madeleine is having trouble adjusting to her new life and doesn't understand why they don't just go back to her father.

Contrasted with that is the story of Eliot, who lives in the Kingdom of Cello.  His father has disappeared, and Eliot is convinced that he can find his lost father.  When his mother leases his father's store to a strange couple that moves into town, and the Butterfly Child appears, Eliot has more on his plate than he can handle.

These two stories collide via a "crack" that connects the two worlds.  Eliot and Madeleine exchange letters through this crack, and their friendship develops as they help each other with their various problems and try to make the best choices with limited information.

This book started a bit slow for me.  I just didn't understand why I had both stories, when either one would have made a perfectly acceptable book.  Eventually, the story grew on me, and things made much more sense near the end.  I'm not certain whether I'll read the sequel; I'm not invested enough in the story at this point, but it was a fun book and I know I could recommend it to my stronger readers.

Recommended for: teens, tweens, strong readers who can stick with a story "until it gets good"
Red Flags: minor mentions of Madeleine's father's alcoholism
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets

Roskos, Evan. Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

James Whitman is depressed. His sister has been kicked out of school and out of the house, so he is left to deal with his abusive parents by himself.  He is obsessed with Walt Whitman and often imagines himself talking to a pigeon who is his therapist (since he can't afford a real one).  He gets a job so he can be away from the house more often, and he tries to uncover what really happened the day his sister was kicked out of school.

This book has been compared to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I can definitely see the comparison. This book seems very random, probably because the reader spends the entire time in the head space of a teenage boy. His obsession with Walt Whitman is a bit weird, to be sure, but it felt like I barely knew this character by the time I finished the book, and I certainly didn't sympathize with him. I didn't enjoy Wallflower much, so that might explain why this book didn't speak to me, either.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: teen violence, mentions of cutting, alcohol use
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Darius & Twig

Myers, Walter Dean. Darius & Twig. Amistad, 2013.

Darius is a writer; Twig is a runner.  They live in Harlem, and they are trying to find their way out of their urban destiny. As is typical in urban fiction, there are threats of gangs, bullying by some other kids, an abusive family member, etc. etc. Through it all, Darius and Twig maintain their friendship.

As I've mentioned before, I am not a fan of urban fiction.  It's not a world I understand or am interested in, so this book was a bit less enjoyable for me than it would be for the kids in my library who are obsessed with the Bluford series. This book would be a great read-alike for Nowhere to Run, and is a must-read for fans of urban fiction.

Recommended for: teens, fans of urban fiction
Red Flags: violence, drug use, abuse, language
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

unSweetined

Sweetin, Jodi. unSweetined. Gallery Books, 2009.

This is Jodie Sweetin's memoir of growing up on Full House and the life she led afterward.

I'm not impressed.

I could sum up this book in just a paragraph: "I was a cute kid on Full House, but then I lost my way and did drugs. I sobered up, then I did drugs again. I sobered up, then I did drugs again. I got pregnant and had a cute baby, but then I drank again. Now I'm not drinking or doing drugs. Maybe."

Seriously, the entire book was about her addiction, and there isn't really any recovery going on, because she always goes back to the drugs. The book was actually pretty depressing and repetitive, except for the first couple of chapters where she talks about her time on Full House.

Recommended for: fans of celebrity memoirs

Red Flags: language, drugs, drinking, - this is not a book for children

Overall Rating: 2/5 stars

Nowhere to Run

Griffin, Claire. Nowhere to Run. Namelos, 2013.

Calvin likes to run, and he's staying in school so he can keep a promise he made to his mom.  After school he works at a repair shop and dates Junior when he's able.  But he lives in a tough neighborhood and has a lot of pressure from a local gang.  Can Calvin escape his destiny, or will he be drawn into the violence around him?

I don't like urban fiction, probably because 1) it's not a setting I'm personally familiar with, and 2) it's not a setting I want to be familiar with.  Urban stories aren't always pretty and they don't always have happy endings.  I can see this book being very popular with my patrons, though, some of whom live in neighborhoods much like Calvin's, and many of whom will choose not to finish high school.

Recommended for: teens, tweens
Red Flags: drug use, language, threats of violence
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Charm & Strange

Kuehn, Stephanie. Charm & Strange. 2013

Andrew Winston Winters is at a boarding school, and he's terrified of the wolf that lives inside of him. He is sure that one day soon that wolf will come out of him and destroy someone.

Andrew was molested by his father, who also molested his brother and his sister. In turn, Andrew also molested his sister. The boys decided that they didn't want to grow up to hurt others, so they took their sister for a walk in the woods, knowing the walk would end with the three of them jumping off a train trestle.

Andrew chickened out and didn't jump, and now he's haunted by his past, by his cowardice, by the ghosts of his brother and sister. And he's terrified that because he was molested, he himself will molest others.

This was a strange book. It required a lot of attention, even though I guessed Andrew's "secret" at the beginning of the story. The chapters alternate between present reality and Andrew's memories of being molested. The details are not graphic, but they do tell the story of what happened. I can see why this book is on the Morris shortlist.

Recommended for: teens, adults, abuse survivors
Red Flags: abuse (not detailed), alcohol and drug use, cutting, eating disorders, mental illness - all of these could be triggering to a person who has dealt with them before.
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars