The Boy from Ilysies

North, Pearl. The Boy from Ilysies. New York: Tor Teen, 2010. Print. Libyrinth 2.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/10545774]

Both Libyrinth and The Boy from Ilysies could be read as stand-alone books, in my opinion. There is nothing mind-blowing in this second book that will ruin the first for you, but if you're planning on reading Libyrinth (and I suggest that you do), you should probably skip this review.

Booktalk:
Culturally, the Libyrinth is a utopia. Libyrarians and Singers, Ilysians and Ayorites all get along and work together. But they're still starving, and there are still growing pains. Po, the only Ilysian male, is feeling the latter acutely. He misses the green, fertile land of his youth, but more than that he misses living in a society where he knows what is expected of him.

Review:
I guess when I read Libyrinth I missed something key about Ilysies. I knew it was a matriarchal society, but I failed to notice that men are greatly outnumbered and treated as second class citizens. Things like that happen, I guess, when you're worrying about the torture of one protag and the budding romance between the other two. It is this second class status that has Po all mixed up in The Boy from Ilysies. Not only is he having problems thinking of Princess, I mean, Libyrarian Selene as just one of the girls and no more than anyone else, but he's also having trouble seeing himself as no less than. He's used to serving women like Selene, not working alongside them, and he's used to being emotionally taken care of, in return, by a matriarchal figure. All of this equality has left him feeling very alone and unsupported.

Much of the book is spent on this dilemma. It's interesting and important and turns gender stereotypes on their heads, but it wasn't what I was looking for in a sequel to the action-packed, literature-rich, POC and LGBTQ-featuring Libyrinth. I wanted more action than intrigue, more of Clauda's brashness and less of Po's confusion, more of the books' wisdom and less erections as feelings, more of the look-how-I've-grown Selene and less of the back-to-the-beginning Selene, more Nod(s), more Haly, and for the love, more Clauda AND Selene. When Po finally left on a quest, along with former Censor Siblea, Selene*, and a few others, I was so happy. I just wish that moment had come before I was halfway through the book.

But that second half of the book was totally worth it for me. The above group sets out for the former Singer headquarters to look for a tool from the legends of every major cultures' folklore that will hopefully make the land around the libyrinth fertile enough to support the community living there. Of course, when they get there, things do not go as planned, but in the course of the search and the fighting, we find out more about the foundations of the Singers' society. Their (former) reasoning behind the fear and demonization of the written word isn't exactly spelled out, but it makes a lot more sense now. Their still present culture of abuse and neglect of women also butts up against Po's sensibilities in a way that makes him take action rather than wallow in confusion and self-pity. The trip is also filled with danger, suspense, a cute but damaged girl for Po, and a cliff-hanger of an ending. I'm re-sucked in to this trilogy (or series?) an eagerly awaiting the as yet untitled Book 3. 


Book source: Philly Free Library



*without Clauda! Have they really never gotten together? Were they together and have since broken up? Are they together but trying to keep things hush-hush? WHO KNOWS? We get to hear (a tiny bit) about Haly and her boyfriend from the first book. Why no follow-up on Clauda and Selene's relationship, North?



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The Vast Fields of Ordinary

Burd, Nick. The Vast Fields of Ordinary. New York: Dial Books, 2009. Print.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/7840771]

Awards:
ALA Rainbow List, Fiction (2010)
ALA Stonewall Award, Children's and Young Adult Literature (2010)
Lambda Literary Award Nominee, LGBT Children/Young Adult (2010)

Booktalk:
Dade has spent his senior year secretly coming out to inanimate objects and secretly sleeping with Pablo, who won't acknowledge their relationship in public on account of his girlfriend. So when Dade goes to a party at Jessica and Fessica's house in the hopes of seeing Pablo in public, he knows he's setting himself of for heartbreak. Instead of heartbreak, he gets Alex.

Review:
I checked out Vast Fields of Ordinary from the library when it won the (first ever) Stonewall Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. I got about halfway through when I realized that this is a book I just had to own, so I returned it to the library and bought my own copy. Which promptly got lost in the TBR shuffle. Still, I'm not sorry I purchased this book even though it meant postponing the "real" reading of it for a year. It's just about everything I've been looking for in a contemporary YA fiction novel about a queer teen and I couldn't bear to not have a copy to mark-up, loan out, and make a home for on my bookcase.

This book is not all about the gayness, and I love it for that.*

The summer after senior year and before college is a summer of huge changes for a lot of people. For Dade, it means the end of an unequal and often emotionally abusive relationship. It's also the summer of finally having a best friend (Lucy!), drunken parties, extreme haircuts, and a hot new boyfriend who ::gasp:: holds his hand in public. He also becomes obsessed with a local girl who has gone missing and watches his parents' marriage continue to crumble. In short, this is an almost typical teen romance novel with a few Important Issues thrown in. But Dade's sexuality is not one of them.

Dade's crush and following romance with Alex is so sweet. It's not perfect, Alex is a drug dealer after all, but they make it work. The fact that Dade has someone to gush about this new relationship with in Lucy doesn't hurt either. He starts to fall in lurv in a way he never could with Pablo. He introduces Alex to his parents, fails to see the disasterous consequences of having the name "Dade" and becoming involved with someone who's last name is "Kincaid," and generally plans out the rest of their happy lives together. And those plans may or may not work out.

Just like any other YA romance. :)

Book source: I bought it at the always wonderful Giovanni's Room and then, as I mentioned earlier, got it signed!


*Looking through the LGBTQ books I've reviewed here, there are only one or two where the main character is queer and where one of the main conflicts of the story is not the character's sexuality. They're still great books, but there needs to be books where some of that has already been done and the character is just out living life. This book includes Dade coming out, but that's not nearly as important as his healthy relationship with Alex.

Links to Amazon.com may be affiliate links for the Amazon Associates program. If you buy something through this link, I may receive a referral fee.

The Duff

Keplinger, Kody. The Duff (designated ugly fat friend). New York: Poppy - Little, Brown and Company, 2010.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/9731272]

Booktalk:
Bianca is having a rough time of it. Her mom is out of town a lot. Her two best friends insist on dragging her to The Nest, a teen nightclub, every weekend. She still can't form coherent sentences in front of her long-time crush. And then Wesley, a world-class sleaseball sits down next to her at the "bar," and tries to make friends. It'll up his chances of nailing one of Bianca's hot besties, he says, being nice to their Duff, their designated ugly fat friend who they only keep around to make themselves look hotter. So Bianca does what any self-respecting girl would do: she throws her cherry coke in his face. And then she makes out with him?

Review:
I started this book ready to be disappointed. There's been so much hype, and not all of it good, that I didn't think The Duff could possibly live up to it. Then I opened it and found a pessimistic, foul-mouthed main character that I didn't think I'd grow to care about. I brought an extra book with me to read on my commute so that i could put this one down as soon as I'd read the obligatory 50 pages (this is my personal rule for books sent to me for review). Next thing I know, I'd almost missed my train stop because I was so sucked in.


Bianca's relationship with Wesley is clearly complicated, though she tries to play it off as the simplest thing ever: just sex. Wesley seems okay with this arrangement and helps Bianca keep up appearances at school and everywhere else for a while. They hate each other. He's a man-slut, womanizing, cocky little brat, representing everything that Bianca, a smart and confident young woman, despises. And he calls her "Duffy," constantly reminding her that he's way out of her league and that their relationship could never go public. For the most part, they maintain a snarky banter both in and out of the bedroom (it's very 10 Things I Hate About You). Until they don't. Bianca is having some very real problems at home that she's avoiding by spending all of her time with Wesley. She can ignore things when she's with him; her friends will want to help and make her talk about it. Wesley just asks her if she's okay and then listens; he doesn't push. Maybe this is because he doesn't actually care (likely in Bianca's opinion) or maybe, as she comes to figure out, it's because he has real problems that he doesn't want to talk about either.

Other reviewers have said that the relationships between Bianca and her friends is what "saved" this book for them. Their friendship is sweet, fierce and awesome. They build each other up with nary an insult. Bianca ditches her friends for Wesley and doesn't even tell them about him. I think this happens a lot (it certainly did when I was in college), and to see it portrayed here was great. Bianca's friends are both pissed and worried, and both those sentiments are clearly expressed. No one is one-dimensional. When Bianca finally spills all to her friends, they (mostly) forgive her. Casey decides to make the word duff theirs. Instead of having a fat day or a bad hair day or even a zit, they say it's their turn to be the Duff. Though the word catches Bianca off guard throughout the book, it loses it's power to make her feel ugly and fat, exactly what the word is supposed to imply.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It's all about relationships, between Bianca and her friends, Bianca and her parents, Bianca and Wesley, but it's not weighed down by emotional drama. Sure, there are really emotionally draining parts of this book, especially when it comes to Bianca and her parents, but they are tempered by sarcasm, sex, and Bianca's own personality.


Book source: ARC provided by the publisher.


Now, about the SEX:
Feel free to skip this part. I wrote my thesis on Forever... by Judy Blume and its effect on the uses and appearances of sex in literature for girls, and I saw in an interview (that I can no longer find - if it was on your blog, let me know so I can link to it!) that Keplinger was inspired by the frank discussions of sex in Forever... when writing The Duff. I can't let that just go without comment and comparison.

Now, in Forever..., there is a whole chapter about going to Planned Parenthood for birth control. There is an author's note in every edition published since AIDS became known and prevalent about how birth control is no longer enough, protecting oneself against STIs is just as important as preventing pregnancy. This information, both in the PP chapter and the author's note, are pretty separate from the story. Yes, going to PP is a turning point for Katherine, showing that she's ready to have sex, but the wealth of information about exactly what happens in a birth control appointment has nothing to do with the story. It's there so that readers aren't afraid to make that appointment themselves; it's showing them how to do it in real life.* It's very didactic. It's very 80s. For a book published in the 70s, it was very ahead of its time.

We don't get that in The Duff. This book has boatloads of sex, but it's not the this-is-how-it's-done sex that appears in Blume. The sex in The Duff is not graphic. It doesn't happen "off-screen," but the reader is not treated to a play-by-play all that often. What is present, however, is the word condom every time Bianca and Wesley do it. It's much more subtle than Blume's way of telling readers to use precaution, but because of that, it's less likely to be skimmed. It's right there in the story. It's natural, almost taken for granted, that Wesley and Bianca will use a condom every time. Later on, Bianca mentions that she's been on birth control for years. It's no big deal. She went on birth control (with her mother's knowledge) when she started having sex. It's just what you do.

Unfortunately, I don't think either approach is all that realistic. It is for some teens, thank goodness, but not for all. Both books also show a teen pregnancy or pregnancy scare. Blume is, again, way more obvious about it. If you don't do as I've shown you, you'll have a baby instead of going to Smith! But Keplinger, too, aims to show consequences. When Bianca is talking to Vikki, the school slut, about her pregnancy scare she thinks, "Had all of this made her realize the consequences of her choices? Our choices" (256).** Even though Bianca is on birth control and is sleeping with a guy who buys condoms in bulk, she recognizes that she and Vikki could easily be in the same boat. It's a huge a-ha moment for her. Calling Vikki a slut doesn't make Bianca anymore of a virgin or less likely to get knocked up. Calling someone else a duff doesn't make her more beautiful. The lesson is different, but it's told in the same way.

Something that I did think is way too realistic in The Duff was the treatment of oral sex, something that isn't even broached in Forever.... The thing that bothered me is that when Wesley, who always always has a condom in his pocket, goes down on Bianca, he doesn't use any kind of protection. The idea that oral sex isn't real sex is prevalent among teens. It's dangerous. I was a little disappointed that Keplinger had been SO GREAT throughout the book with the condoms and the birth control (and all without breaking up the story!), but didn't even mention a dental dam here. But turning a condom into a dental dam would have created a "let's go to PP" chapter in an otherwise clever and not remotely heavy-handed book about safe sex. It's still a little upsetting though.

I don't know if Keplinger meant for The Duff to be about safe sex so much as it was about how running away from your problems doesn't solve them (with a lot of sex). Regardless, I applaud her efforts to portray responsible choices even in the midst of an "enemies-with-benefits" relationship where sex is had for all the wrong reasons.



*For a more extreme example of this tactic of providing information about something some might think is squicky or controversial for young readers, see the "I'm bleeding to death from between my legs" chapter in the Alanna: The First Adventure. Getting her period has nothing to do with the story, but everything to do with being a preteen girl, as Alanna is.
**Quotes and page numbers were taken from an uncorrected proof and my not match the published copy.

Splendor

Godbersen, Anna. Splendor. New York: Alloy Entertainment-HarperCollins Publishers, 2009. Print. A Luxe Novel 4.

Once again, it is impossible to talk about this book without talking about the books that came before it. If you have yet to finish Envy, don't read my review of Splendor. Just look at the pretty picture on the cover (it's Lina this time).

Booktalk:

• Carolina is actually an heiress now and uses her money to get a house within view of Leland's. Coincidence? Of course not.
• Elizabeth is settling into her new life with Mr. Cairns away from the public eye. Women who are "in the family way" are better not seen.
• Penelope is recovering. Polite people won't say that she's recovering from a miscarriage, but really impolite people don't mind letting it slip that she wasn't ever actually pregnant.
• Henry and Teddy are off to war, but only one of them gets there.
• And Diana. Diana is in "Paris." At least that's where the Gamesome Gallant would have you believe she is.

In the last installment in The Luxe series, things never go as you would expect. There is a death, a new-found love, an uncovered plot, a steamy affair, a wedding. Someone is thrown from her high horse as someone else decides to share in her bounty. And someone decides to run away and start life over somewhere else. Again. There are no neat little bows in this ending, except for those on Penelope's dresses, but did you really expect everyone to get to live happily ever after?

Review:
These books have never really been heavy on the historical details, and neither is this one. If you worried after Envy that Godbersen would let her pretties be set aside so the boys could go off to war (honestly, I'm still unclear as to which war they went off to), breathe a little easier. Henry lives the good life in the army just as does anywhere else he goes, and Teddy, who really does see combat, is back in the States by the time we see him. Both of the guys, and a few others, have important roles, starring you might say in the case of Henry, but this book is still about fancy rich girls in pretty dresses and their intrigues.

There were a lot of ends to tie up in order for Splendor to be the final book in the series. Some storylines had miles to go before they could make it to the last page. Godbersen took all the room she needed to tell Diana and Henry's stories, they are everyone's favorites after all, but that left little room for other storylines that also needed endings. Penelope and Carolina seemed to get a fair share of the page space, but their stories weren't as fleshed out as they had been in previous books. Elizabeth's story was downright anemic. She had one or two big scenes where important things happen, but the story was slim on the build-up and then managed to wrap up so very nicely a page later. After all she's been through, maybe Godbersen felt that Elizabeth deserved to be calm for most of Splendor and then have a happy ending dropped in her lap. Lord knows hers was the only traditionally happy ending provided.

I could have lived with all of the focus being on Diana and Henry (who couldn't) at the expense of Carolina and Penelope and even Elizabeth. I do wish that the stories overlapped more. Yes, Diana visits her pregnant sister. Yes, Penelope and Carolina attend a couple of the same parties. Of course Penelope's husband is still snubbing her in favor of Diana. Their stories aren't really connected by much else. There's a whole lot less gossip, plotting and backstabbing going on than in the other books. But what I really missed in this book were some of the minor characters that were so multidimensional and so alive in previous books. Aunt Edith only got one really good appearance, Buck is practically a prop, and the elder Mr. Schoonmaker hardly even gets to yell at anybody! He does get to change the course of EVERYTHING though, so he shouldn't be too upset. And Mrs. Holland? Who's she?

But even with all of this, I still loved Splendor. It wasn't until after I was done reading (a whole 4 hours after purchase) that I felt a bit let down in places. What Godbersen gives us is really good and really enthralling. I just wish she'd given us more. Le sigh. I'm so sad it's over!


About the ending (spoiler-free)
I wasn't going to talk about the ending, but after reading reviews on amazon, goodreads and librarything, I feel like I have to. I really liked the ending. This series does not end with the good people all happy and in love and the bad people publicly paying for their sins. How would you figure out who falls into which category anyway (except for Elizabeth and Penelope who embody good and evil so distinctively)? Disney did not write this, and I'm glad Anna Godbersen did not compromise her characters to make it seem like he did.




Book 1: The Luxe (on amazon)
Book 2: Rumors (on amazon)
Book 3: Envy (my review)


Book Source: I bought it.

A Certain Slant of Light

Whitcomb, Laura. A Certain Slant of Light. Boston: Graphia-Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/73919]

Awards:
ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2006)
ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults (Death and Dying, 2009)

Booktalk:
Helen has been "haunting" writers for 130yrs. By haunting, I mean acting as their unnoticed muse. She's grown used to existing on the sidelines of the lives of her writers. She has a happy afterlife. Her current writer, Mr. Brown, teaches English during the day. It's in his class that everything changes. A student looks at her, hears her, knows that she's there. And now that Helen has someone to interact with rather than thanklessly inspire, she can't let him go. Even if she has to "borrow" a human body, like he has, to keep him.

Review:
I've been eyeing this book since it came out 4 years ago, but I'm not a big fan of ghost stories (read: I'm a big wimp when it comes to scary stuff with no explanations). I put off reading it. Happily for me, this book is not scary. At all. There are some suspenseful moments, but they have nothing to do with ghosts so much as crazy parenting. But I'll get to that in a minute.

Basically, James, who used to haunt the park, found an empty body. The soul had walked off when the body OD-ed, so James decided to hop in. Because he's still a ghost, he can see Helen. They've both been alone for decades and relish in each other's company. They fall in love. Unfortunately, all of these inconvenient physical urges come with James' borrowed body. He wants to satisfy them with Helen, but to do that she also needs a body. They find her an empty body at, where else, the mall. Now James, in Billy's body, and Helen, in Jenny's body, are free to go at it like rabbits.

There are of course, complications such as when Billy's brother, who is raising Billy while their mom is in a coma and their dad is in jail, catches James and Helen (Billy and Jenny?) in the act. Or when Jenny's mom, who is ruled by her EXTREMELY religious husband, finds bloody panties when it's not Jenny (Helen?)'s time of the month and assumes, correctly, that someone has popped Jenny's cherry. Or when Helen starts to get nauseous every time she smells food after having lots of condoms-weren't-invented-before-I-died sex. But these are small roadblocks in Helen and James' love story.

This is paranormal romance at its best. Everyday concerns are left by the wayside as the extraordinary circumstances that make this love story work take precedence. As long as that's what you're looking for, you'll love this. But if you want a good almost Halloween ghost story, look elsewhere.


Book source: Philly Free Library

The Dust of 100 Dogs

King, A.S. The Dust of 100 Dogs. Woodbury, Minn.: Flux-Llewellyn Publications, 2009. Print.[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/6349011]
Awards:
Spring 2009 Indie Next List pick for Teens

Booktalk:
Saffron is wise beyond her years, but not in the kooky Dakota Fanning way that adults think when they say that. The ability to appear really serious, the ability to handle "mature situations," and the cunning to look young and sweet while you do it. Saffron has all that, but she also has memories dating back to the 1600s when she, then Emer, was a pirate captain whose trademark was popping out Spanish eyeballs. Back then she was cursed with the Dust of 100 Dogs to be reincarnated 101 times and to keep her memories from each life. The 1st 100 reincarnations she was a dog (as you may have guessed from the name of the curse/book). Now, in her 102 life, she can finally enjoy human existence again, if you can call living in Hollow Ford, PA in the swingin' 70s a "human existence." Finally escaped from life on 4 legs, Saffron (Emer) just needs to escape low income suburbia so she can reclaim what's hers. Buried treasure, of course. Somewhere in the Caribbean.

Review:
I didn't really know how to categorize this book until I read the author interview at the end with Leila of bookshelves of doom. In the interview the author describes her book as magical realism, and that is so what this is! I had to reach back into my memories of my 9th grade World Literature class (Mr. Driscoll, you still rock and I promise to email you back real soon) to remember what magical realism really is. It is, from my memory and the author interview, when something a bit magic/supernatural/fantastical happens in the real world. It's not fantasy because there isn't a whole new world created and most of what happens could really happen. There are just a few magical moments in the midst of normalcy, like a guy who grows angel wings or candy that makes you a little sad.

Saffron's memory of her past lives is like that. She doesn't have any superpowers, she didn't even have any when she was a pirate captain. And no one eats people parts or turns into anything fancy under a full moon. To make up for this lack of the supernatural, we get little tidbits from Saffron's past lives as dogs. The whole book, which alternates between Emer's life from childhood to when she is cursed and Saffron's life in Hollow Ford and treasure hunting, is peppered with Dog Tips. These tips give little glimpses into the lives of dogs raised to be in dog fights, strays, the spoiled little dogs that get carried around in purses, and the times in history in which Saffron lived these lives.

The historical parts of this novel are well-researched, and it shows. Emer's life in Ireland is richly described and detailed, as is her life in the Caribbean. This book does not, however, read like historical fiction. It is not bogged down with description (not that historical fiction must be); little details are dropped into the narrative in a way that doesn't distract from the story, which remains high action no matter what time period it is portraying. The only time period that fell a little short for me was Saffron's current life. It felt a little too present day to be the 70s. The only way I could tell that Saffron wasn't in Hollow Ford yesterday is that no one had a cell phone, but when you're talking about really poor people who are robbed on a general basis by a tweaker family member, the lack of cell phones could still be current. This didn't detract from the story AT ALL for me. I simply forgot when Saffron was supposed to be.

The Dust of 100 Dogs was a really unique book and a really fun read. I think it will be a hit with the millions of readers of paranormal romance out there, even though it's not really a romance and it's not really paranormal, even though the main character has been reincarnated 101 times.I look forward to seeing what A.S. King will come up with for young adults in the future.


Book source: Philly Free Library

After the Moment

Freymann-Weyr, Garret. After the Moment. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2009.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/6759077]

Booktalk:
What is the most important? The moment you meet someone? The moment you realize you're in love with that person? The moment that tears you apart? The moment you realize that person will forever be "the one that got away"? Watch Maia and Leigh go through all of these moments, and then some, and decide which is the most important for yourself. Then see what comes After the Moment.

Review:
There is a lot going on in After the Moment. There is divorce, the bond between step-siblings, death, jailed parents, absent parents, emotionally over or under-available parents, anorexia, school bullies, a BIG fight, and more that is too integral to the main turning point of the plot to list. Because there is so much crammed into the barely-over-300-pages of this book, I don't think that any of these issues are given the attention that they deserve. In fact, I would hesitate to give this book to anyone who is actually dealing with the consequences of the situations discussed in the book. The characters recover much to quickly to offer any comfort.

The one exception to this is Maia's anorexia. When we meet her in After the Moment she is already in recovery and off of her meal plan, all of which is discussed openly and frankly in the text. Though she still struggles in the beginning with eating in front of people, she progresses throughout the book with her recovery. Whether this is because a million other things happen to her that take precedence in the plot or because she is actually moving forward in her recovery may be open to interpretation. By the time we see her again years later when Leigh is looking back on their relationship, there are no outward signs of her struggles, even at a dinner party. The life after anorexia is hopeful, as is the life after everything else the characters have gone through.

Even with all of this, it felt real to me while I was reading it. It wasn't until I finished the book and realized that Millie's grieving over her father's death hadn't been fully covered or resolved (along with a myriad of other BIG ISSUES that could have been more fully dealt with). My adult brain looking back on reading a YA novel wanted more from the treatment of the characters and their feelings from this book. When I was just reading it, however, it worked.

Unraveling

Baldini, Michelle and Lynn Biederman. Unraveling. New York: Delacorte Press, 2008.
[Book cover credit: http://www.librarything.com/]

Summary:
When Amanda starts making out with Rick, a hot senior with a girlfriend who just happens to be Amanda's arch-nemisis, Amanda will do just about anything to make their relationship real and be accepted by her peers, even if her mother, The Captain, might kill her for it.

Booktalk:
Amanda Himmelfarb, known as Himmelfart at school, has fights with her mother, The Captain, that are so epic they warrant their own names. Looking for distraction and acceptance elsewhere, Amanda starts to make out with Rick, the hottest senior, in his car after school. When he offers her The Deal, he'll take her to Homecoming as his honest-to-God girlfriend if she'll sleep with him, she agrees right away. Now Amanda has to figure out how to get to the dance and through the night without The Captain figuring out what's going on and without losing herself in the process.