See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

Have you entered all my giveaways?

 Goody Bag Giveaway (last day!)

Young Adult Giveaway Hop (last day!)

Catastrophic ARC Giveaway (one more day!)

See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

Candlewick Press, May 8, 2012

Read for 2012 Standalone Challenge

Summary from Goodreads:

Starting middle school brings all the usual challenges - until the unthinkable happens, and Fern and her family must find a way to heal.
Twelve-year-old Fern feels invisible. It seems as though everyone in her family has better things to do than pay attention to her: Mom (when she's not meditating) helps Dad run the family restaurant; Sarah is taking a gap year after high school; and Holden pretends that Mom and Dad and everyone else doesn't know he's gay, even as he fends off bullies at school. Then there's Charlie: three years old, a "surprise" baby, the center of everyone's world. He's devoted to Fern, but he's annoying, too, always getting his way, always dirty, always commanding attention. If it wasn't for Ran, Fern's calm and positive best friend, there'd be nowhere to turn. Ran's mantra, "All will be well" is soothing in a way that nothing else seems to be. And when Ran says it, Fern can almost believe it's true. But then tragedy strikes- and Fern feels not only more alone than ever, but also responsible for the accident that has wrenched her family apart. All will not be well. Or at least all will never be the same.

Oh, Jo Knowles, how I love you and your writing ability. My first read in 2012 also happens to be my favorite read of 2012 so far.

I can't share too much of the plot with you, because there would be super spoilers. So this will be a short review. See You at Harry's is a powerful novel. This was not a "brush a few tears away while reading" kind of novel. No, this was a "bawl your eyes out while being thankful you're reading while your husband is at the gym so he can't make fun of you for crying hysterically over a novel" novel. The sad part happened in such a way that you were expecting it, but then the plot twisted and so you weren't excepting it (and sighing in relief because it didn't happen), and then bam! It happened anyway.

Besides the sad part, there's a scene with our narrator, twelve-year-old Fern, and her neighbor, the elderly Mr. Seymore. I won't say any more about that scene, but it was the most heart-wrenching, realistic thing I think I've ever read.

This is what the novel is about: how can a family that doesn't really have it all together, get it together, and keep it together, after a tragedy? I so did not expect the level of emotion that I got from this novel--but I don't know why I didn't expect it. After all, Jo Knowles is the creative genius that brought us Jumping Off Swings, Pearl, and (#2 on my MAHROAT list) Lessons from a Dead Girl. Which brings me to another point: while this novel wasn't absolutely horrifying in the way that the titles on my MAHROAT list are, it was still pretty horrifying. It might deserve a spot on that list, I haven't yet decided. What do you think?

There are few books that I love enough to post my review months ahead of time--Pregnant Pause by Han Nolan is the only one I can think of from 2011, and See You at Harry's is 2012's pick. Expect to see a reminder post about this book before its publication day (May 8).

ARC received from publisher.
Enjoy your reading!
Christi

Giveaway: Lessons From a Dead Girl

I promised you all a giveaway, and here it is! As you may recall, Lessons From a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles is #2 on my list of the Most Awesomely Horrifying Reads Of All Time (better known as My MAHROAT). The #1 spot is reserved for Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott, and Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess currently resides in the #3 spot.

You might also recall that I recently won a book auction and was awarded a first edition, signed-and-personalized copy of Lessons From a Dead Girl (squee!), which means that I now own two copies.

Now, I love the idea of my MAHROAT, and yes, I admit that I am very, very strict about what titles will make it on said list (but that's OK, because it is MY list, after all). However, I'm always willing to explore more titles that might fit on this list, so that's where the contest comes in.

Do you have a title that you think I should consider? I'm looking for realistic YA fiction here, stuff that could really happen, but God, we hope it never does. Scary, scary stuff. Leave me a comment with a title for consideration and your email address. You can enter more than once, just leave a separate comment for each title. I'll randomly select one person to win my paperback copy of Lessons From a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles. The contest will close May 22 at midnight; I'll announce the winner on Monday, May 23.

Good luck!
Enjoy your reading!
Christi

Pearl by Jo Knowles (Banned Books Tour)

Have you entered to win a copy of One Hundred Candles yet?

Pearl by Jo Knowles

Henry Holt & Company Books for Young Readers, July 19, 2011

Read for YA Contemps Challenge

Summary from Goodreads:

Bean (née Pearl) and Henry, misfits and best friends, have the strangest mothers in town. Henry’s mom Sally never leaves the house. Bean’s mom Lexie, if she is home, is likely nursing a hangover or venting to her friend Claire about Bean’s beloved grandfather Gus, the third member of their sunny household.

Gus’s death unleashes a host of family secrets that brings them all together. And they threaten to change everything—including Bean’s relationship with Henry, her first friend, and who also might turn out to be her first love.

As soon as I found out about this book (I believe through the YA Contemps website), it was on my list, which is obvious, if I'm planning on reading all of the YA Contemps books. But, after reading Jumping Off Swings and my #2 MAHROAT, Lessons From a Dead Girl, I knew it was an absolute must-read. And after reading Pearl, it's official: I have a fan-girl crush on Jo Knowles.

But enough about me, on to the book. Pearl, our main character, is 15 (the same age her mom was when she got pregnant with her) and more commonly known as Bean (she thinks because her grandpa, Gus, hates her given name). Bean is the definition of social outcast. Mom Lexie wants nothing to do with her, but Gus is the most doting grandfather a girl could ask for. He does what he can to make up for Lexie's shortcomings--and then has no problem letting Lexie know that she has shortcomings. It's a tense household.

So it's no wonder that Bean and Henry become friends at a young age. Henry has his own home problems--Dad left when Henry was a baby and mom Sally hasn't left the house in years. I'm telling you, my heart was constantly breaking for these two kids, but at the same time, I was so grateful that they managed to find each other, and were smart enough to hold on to that friendship for all these years.

So the pair are sweltering through the summer, watching soaps with Sally and listening to Gus and Lexie argue--nothing out of the ordinary. Until Gus dies and Bean's world gets turned upside-down. Lexie's best friend since childhood, Claire, arrives to help out, and in a weird twist, the pair take Sally, Henry's mom, on as a pet project. No one seems to be grieving the loss of Gus, the only father figure in Bean's life, and no one seems to remember Gus as the loving grandfather she knew him to be. Bits and pieces of her mom's past get revealed, and Bean is shocked to discover that the Gus she knew and loved was not the same Gus her mother knew at all.

Jo Knowles has a gift for telling a story, and creating characters that we love, or love to hate. I read this book in less than two hours. The chapters are the perfect length--not too long, not too short, and at natural breaks in the story. And I loved the relationship between Henry and Bean! It was so innocent and pure, but with that tiny hint that it might, someday, be more. Really, their friendship is all the pair has.

Claire was the perfect antagonist, although by the end of the book I had a new appreciation for her behavior. Still, none of what happened was Bean's fault, and although I empathized with Claire, I still really disliked the way she treated Bean.

The moms were on opposite ends of the spectrum. Bean's mom, Lexie, was either out at her job, or out doing who-knows-what with who-knows-who. By comparison, Henry's mom, Sally, never leaves the house. Both moms had their faults--I get that Lexie had Bean when she was only 15, and wasn't ready to be a mom, but guess what? You are. You should try acting like it sometime. And Sally just needs to get out of her dream world. After fifteen years, it's a pretty safe assumption that her husband isn't coming back. Get off the damn couch, woman!

But I saved the best for last--Gus. Oh, how Bean loved Gus, and I loved Bean's Gus, too. But learning about Lexie's Gus caused my love to falter a little, as did Bean's. Will she be able to reconcile the Gus she loves with the Gus she never knew? And I felt cheated (as Bean did) that we never got to meet the grandmother. I felt that if she was around, this story would have had a completely different outcome.

Pearl is such a wonderful story. I hope you all put it on your to-read lists when it comes out this summer! And now I'm off to find out if Jo Knowles will be anywhere in the New Jersey area anytime soon, so I can stalk her meet her in person.

A note on the cover: I love it. Simple and understated, but meaningful. I hope they leave it just like this for the final product!

ARC received as part of a Banned Books Tour (thanks, Jen Bigheart!)

Enjoy your reading!

Christi

My Most-Awesomely-Horrfiying-Reads-Of-All-Time, aka my MAHROAT

While creating my review for Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles, I realized that I have a lot of favorite titles, for a lot of different reasons. Lessons from a Dead Girl was recently awarded a spot on what I think is my toughest list of favorites: my Most-Awesomely-Horrifying-Reads-Of-All-Time (hereafter referred to as my MAHROAT. I was going to attempt a cooler title, but I like how MAHROAT looks as an acronym, so, it stays.).

Anyway, the qualifications for a book to be included on my MAHROAT list? The book has to deal with a horrific situation in such a realistic setting that readers know it can and probably does happen all the time in real life, but for the most part we remain blissfully unaware that such things happen. Basically, it's a book that's obscenely difficult to read because of the subject matter, but one that sticks with us long after we've finished it. For my MAHROAT, these books have to be realistic fiction; the fear that this is something that could happen to me, to my daughter, to my family is most of what makes the read so terrifying to me.

For me, the bar is set pretty high--as of right now, there are only three titles on my MAHROAT list:

     1. Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott (my review is here)

     2. Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles (my review is here)

     3. Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess (my review is here)

Added July 25, 2011!

4. The Babysitter Murders by Janet Ruth Young (my review is here)

I think Living Dead Girl will always remain at #1 on my MAHROAT--it is the standard by which all other MAHROAT titles must live up to, and I have yet to read anything in YA realistic fiction that is as terrifying to me. (Is that a challenge, authors?) I just re-read the novel while preparing this post, and will be posting a review tomorrow.

I realize, of course, that in reading YA literature for only two years, I have only begun to scratch the surface, and hope to return to this post with updates as I stumble across new titles that will fit my MAHROAT qualifications.

Do you have your own MAHROAT, or is there a title you think I should read, perhaps a contender for my MAHROAT?

Enjoy your reading!
Christi 

Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles

Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles

Candlewick, 2007

Summary from Goodreads:

Leah Greene is dead. For Laine, knowing what really happened and the awful feeling that she is, in some way, responsible set her on a journey of painful self-discovery. Yes, she wished for this. She hated Leah that much. Hated her for all the times in the closet, when Leah made her do those things. They were just practicing, Leah said. But why did Leah choose her? Was she special, or just easy to control? And why didn’t Laine make it stop sooner? In the aftermath of the tragedy, Laine is left to explore the devastating lessons Leah taught her, find some meaning in them, and decide whether she can forgive Leah and, ultimately, herself.

Disclaimer: this title has been on my to-read list for almost two full years. My library doesn't own it for some reason (we only recently aquired Jumping Off Swings--literally, like maybe four months ago). It's not available as an eBook and you all know how hard it is for me to justify purchasing physical books--if it's not autographed or an automatic LOVE, I won't buy it. But I have waited to read this book for TWO YEARS. It has outlasted dozens of to-read lists. So I finally broke down and bought it not that long ago.

I knew what it was about; obviously the blurb above lets you know this isn't going to be a light, sunny read. What I didn't expect is how much I would love it! Seriously, I'm going to award Lessons from a Dead Girl a ranking on my list of Most-Awesomely-Horrifying-Reads-Of-All-Time. (#1, of course, is Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott.) Where on the list, I haven't quite decided, but it does deserve a spot. (Full post on this topic soon!)

Anyway.

We meet Laine just after Leah dies, and spend the book bouncing from past to present as Laine comes to terms with Leah's death. The pair become friends in fifth grade, when popular Leah takes Laine under her social wing for reasons Laine still doesn't understand. The two play together, they enjoy spending time at each other's house...and Leah forces Laine to "practice" sexual acts in this tiny alcove closet in Laine's house. And then makes fun of Laine when she is (understandably) confused about her feelings. Laine ultimately makes the decision to break away from Leah and gives up all hopes of popularity, chosing instead to become almost invisible for most of her high school life.

Leah is never far from Laine's thoughts, though, and she is constantly wondering why Leah is who she is. Here's a girl who wants for nothing; her parents are wealthy and lavish attention on her and her older sister, Brooke. Leah is beautiful--boys want to date her and girls want to be her. But something inside of Leah is broken, although Laine is the only one to realize that. So whenever the girls paths cross, Laine tries to see past Leah's evil barbs to determine what is causing her such terrible pain. Will she ever know for sure, or will she one day just stop caring?

Leah is definitely a girl with problems, problems that we only learn about as Laine does. Jo Knowles makes it easy to see how someone like Leah, with every advantage and opportunity, can still turn out to be so troubled. I alternated between feeling sympathetic towards her, and wanting to punch her in the face for how she treated Laine. Poor, sweet Laine. She's the kind of girl who's just on the edge of the circle, never really fitting in. I can't figure out why, except that she's just too shy to let her personality shine through. And Leah completely sees and abuses that. Lessons from a Dead Girl is a powerful read about how perceptions of friendship can vary from person to person.

Oh! I have to say that this is the first time I can recall seeing my name (with the spelling I use) used for a character in a book. Laine's older sister, Christi, is a secondary character, but still an important part of the story. And I'm happy to report that she's not evil or anything! Sure, she's nasty to Laine sometimes, but she'll stand up for Laine when it's needed, and to me, that's a big sister.

Purchased book.
Enjoy your reading!
Christi