The Luster Of Lost Things, by Sophie Chen Keller ~ 5++++++++++ Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Bullying, Disabilities, Family Bonds, Friendships, Magical Realism, Societal Roles

Thanks to G.P. Putnam’s Sons for providing an ARC in exchange for and honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

304 Pages

Synopsis: Walter Lavender Jr. is a master of finding. A wear of high-tops. A maker of croissants. A son keeping vigil, twelve years counting.

But he wouldn’t be able to tell you. Silenced by his motor speech disorder, Walter’s life gets lonely. Forth he has The Lavenders—mother’s enchanted dessert shop, where marzipan dragons breathe actual fire. He also has a knack for tracking down any missing thing—except his lost father.

So, when the Book at the root of the bakery’s magic vanishes, Walter, accompanied by his overweight golden retriever, journeys through New York City to find it—along the way encountering an unforgettable cast of lost souls. 

Steeped in nostalgic wonder, The Luster of Lost Things explores the depths of our capacity for kindness and our ability to heal. A lyrical meditation on why we become lost and how we are found, from the bright, broken heart of a boy who knows where to look for everyone but himself.

You guys! This book! I’m not sure how to even begin except to say that while I’ve read some fantastic books so far this year, The Luster of Lost Things surpasses them all!

Walter Lavender Jr. is a thirteen-year-old boy who is not only dealing with a motor speech disorder that makes it difficult for him to communicate, but he longs for his father who went missing before he was born. Because he’s “different” from his classmates, he doesn’t have any friends, and is the victim of bullying. But he has his loving and devoted mother, Lucy, and their magical bakery, The Lavenders. There, it’s completely normal to see chocolate mice jump rope with licorice, and other desserts come to life. The source of the magic is the Book, a gift given to Lucy, one cold winter’s night by a woman to whom Lucy gave shelter. I’m trying really hard not to include any spoilers, so I’m just going to say that ever since the Book was left, the, desserts came to life and the shop prospered. 

When the Book mysteriously disappears, the magic also departs and the future of the shop is in peril thanks to a new greedy landlord. So, young Walter, who has an uncanny knack for finding lost things, accompanied by his best friend and Golden Retriever, Milton, embarks upon a quest to find the missing book. Along the way he meets some incredible people who turn his journey into much more than a quest to find a magical book. This turns into a voyage of self-discovery, where Walter gains confidence in himself which in turn leads him to successfully form lasting connections to the people he meets. 

Walter is one of the most likable, charming and relatable characters I’ve come across in a very long time. By the end of the first chapter he stole my heart and I felt as though I was inside the story accompanying him and Milton as they traveled through the gritty streets of New York City on their mission. All of the characters in this book, including Milton are vividly brought to life, and each of them have a hand in young Walter’s transformation. 

There are really three parts to this book. The beginning which is set in the bakery and is full of magical realism. Then there’s the middle, where Walter is away from the warmth and safety of his mother and their shop. And finally, the ending which has Walter back where he began, albeit a much different boy then when he left. There have been many reviewers who have commented that they loved the beginning, but found Walter’s journey too slow. I have to respectfully disagree. While Walter’s quest does depart from the magical realism the book opens with, that doesn’t take away from the connections he makes with the quirky people he meets. And while, they all help him in some fashion, the positive impact he has on them is truly remarkable. 

Writing an adult book from a child’s perspective can’t be easy, and when that child suffers from a speech disorder, well, that’s almost unheard of. The only other book I’ve read that’s successfully done this is The Curious Incident of the Dog In Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. Sophie Chen Keller brilliantly brings to life this young boy who is highly intelligent and knows what he wants to say, yet frustratingly struggles to say the words out loud. We see the story unfold through his eyes and thoughts, and it’s a wondrous thing because Walter’s world is amazing and beautiful. 

The Luster of Lost Things is one of those rare books that if you read it, you’ll remember for it a very long time. I wish I had tons of money, because I’d buy hundreds of copies and leave them in train stations, subways, park benches, restaurants, mail them to all of you and, well, you get the picture. As I’m not rich, I’m just going to encourage everyone who reads this review to buy themselves a copy, or borrow it from their library. This is an uplifting and beautifully told tale with a boy who will touch your heart in ways you can’t imagine. It’s a confectionery delight that is a lovely respite from the real world. Please, give yourself a gift that will not only give you the warm fuzzies, but will also remind you what’s truly important in life.

 

Advertisements

The Party, by Robyn Harding ~ 2.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Bullying, Contemporary Fiction, Family Relationships, Teen Drinking

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

352 Pages

Synopsis: One invitation. A lifetime of regrets.

Sweet sixteen. It’s an exciting coming of age, a milestone, and a rite of passage. Jeff and Kim Sanders plan on throwing a party for their daughter, Hannah–a sweet girl with good grades, and nice friends. Rather than an extravagant, indulgent affair, they invite four girls over for pizza, cake, movies, and a sleepover. What could possibly go wrong?

But things do go wrong, horrifically so. After a tragic accident occurs, Jeff and Kim’s flawless life in a wealthy San Francisco suburb suddenly begins to come apart. In the ugly aftermath, friends become enemies, dark secrets are revealed in the Sanders’ marriage, and the truth about their perfect daughter, Hannah, is exposed.

The Party is a fairly decent read, but for me it played out like a Lifetime movie of the week with lots of angst and drama, but surprisingly little in the way of excitement or suspense. 

My main issue was that I just didn’t like any of the characters. The teens were your stereotypical mean girls, or in Hannah’s case, an eager to please follower who cares only about ascending the social ladder. The adults were completely self-absorbed and insipid, and were more concerned with bemoaning how what happens directly effects them, then doing what’s right.

The story itself is more suspenseful in the events leading up to the accident. Unfortunately this only makes for less than a 1/4 of the book. After that, the intensity peeters out somewhat and this is made worse by the overwhelming focus on high school politics and lawsuits.

The Party isn’t a horrible book. It was just a little too “meh” for me to truly enjoy it. It surprisingly had little tension or suspense, and there’s no psychological insight into its characters, which made it impossible for me to get really invested in the story, The book has received some positive reviews, and I think if you’re a fan of family drama, you may want to try this. But if you’re looking for a suspense/thriller with a climactic ending, you might wind up being disappointed as I was.

 

 

A Killer Harvest by Paul Cleave ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Bullying, Cellular Memory, Medical Thriller, Organ Donation, Serial Killers, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

400 Pages

Synopsis: Joshua is convinced there is a family curse. It’s taken away his biological parents, robbed him of his eyesight, and is the reason why his father Logan, the detective who raised him, is killed while investigating the homicide of a young woman. The suspect, Simon Bowers, is killed by Logan’s partner Ben, whose intentions are murkier than expected. 

After this tragedy, Joshua is handed an opportunity he can’t refuse: a new pair of eyes. But a mishap during surgery leads to Joshua unknowingly getting one eye from his father, and the other from Simon. As Joshua navigates a world of sight, he gets glimpses of what his eyes might have witnessed in their previous life. Memories, truth, and lies Joshua discovers a world darker than the one he has emerged from. What else has he failed to see?

Meanwhile, Simon’s accomplice Vincent, is bent on revenge, going after the loved ones of those involved in Simon’s death, and Vincent is drawing closer and closer to Joshua.

Huh. This was a surprise. I figured I was going to enjoy Killer Harvest after reading so many positive reviews, but I didn’t suspect how much I was going to love it! 

At the heart of this story is the controversial phenomenon of cellular memory. Is it possible for a recipient of an organ donation, to receive the emotions and behaviors from the donor through memories stored in the neurons of the donated organ? It seems like the medical community is divided as of now over this possibility, but there have been cases that make you wonder. There have been plenty of books and movies that have used this theory as part of their premise, but Paul Cleave puts a whole new spin on it.

Joshua is one of the most lovable characters I’ve come across in a while. There are times that it really does seem like some supernatural curse is hanging over his head. He grabbed me by the heartstrings from the very beginning and because of that I was thoroughly invested in the story. He’s sweet, compassionate, and determined to do the right thing. He’s also a bit impulsive, like many teens, and this winds up getting him into trouble. 

There are many secondary characters, and while I didn’t think all of them were necessary to further the plot, there were a few that play a big part in Joshua’s life and I really enjoyed them.

The story itself has more than one theme with organ donation/cellular memory, bullying, and serial killers, among them. This could have been messy and confusing, but the author deftly brings everything together. I was hooked from the very first page, and the surprising twists and mini cliffhangers at the end of each chapter made it impossible for me to put this book down. I started it mid-afternoon and finished about 1:00 in the morning.

The only reason why I’m not giving this a perfect 5 stars is because of the ending. It’s deliberately left open-ended, which I had no problem with, although it’s left me longing for a sequel. However, there were some loose ends concerning a couple of characters that left me a little frustrated.

There are quite a few reviewers on Goodreads who have mentioned that Paul Cleave, who’s from New Zealand, is underappreciated in the U.S. and after reading Killer Harvest, I have to agree. It’s a brilliantly written thriller and a perfect beach and vacation read. I really can’t recommend it highly enough. This was my first book by Cleave, but it certainly won’t be my last! 

First We Were IV, by Alexandra Sirowy ~ 2.5 Stars

Tags

Bullying, Friendship, Mystery, Romance, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Books For Young Children for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: July 25th, 2017

448 Pages

Synopsis: It started for pranks, fun, and forever memories. A secret society–for the four of us. The rules: Never lie. Never tell. Love each other. We made the pledge and danced under the blood moon on the meteorite in the orchard. In the spot we found the dead girl five years earlier. And discovered the ancient drawings way before that. 

Nothing could break us apart–I thought. But then, others wanted in. Our seaside town had secrets. History.

We wanted revenge.

We broke the rules. We lived. We told. We loved each other too much, not enough, and in ways we weren’t supposed to. Our invention ratcheted out of control.

What started as a secret society, ended as justice. Revenge. Death. Rebellion.

Despite a promising beginning, First We Were IV wound up being a frustrating read for several reasons.

First, it felt as though I was reading two separate books simultaneously. One was a creepy and compelling tale about four teens trying to solve a girl’s murder that occurred when they were children. This was what I liked the most. But then there was another side which was your stereotypical YA story where a group of teens feel like the entire world is against them and decide that they’re much better than anyone else around them. To prove their superiority, they they form a secret society to strike out against the town and their classmates. Oh! And while they’re performing random acts of vandalism and violence, they’re also falling in and out of love with each other at a rate that made my head spin.

The other issue I had was with the characters themselves. There was only one of the foursome that I actually liked, Harry, who is the on-again, off-again boyfriend of Izzy, who primarily tells the story. The others, including Izzy, are immature, bland and uninteresting at best, self-centered and arrogant at worst. Izzy, Harry, Viv, and Graham, have all been subjected to bullying which should have had me emphasizing with them, but because of their attitudes and actions, completely turned me off instead. And as for the adults, well, they all pretty much fit into the stereotypical roles that unfortunately you find in a lot of YA fiction. There’s the lazy and ineffectual police; the clueless parents and school officials; the elderly, nosy neighbor; the abusive father, etc. The way adults are often portrayed in YA literature is a particular pet peeve of mine, so I was extremely aggravated. After over 400 extremely long pages, the ending finally came, only to leave me feeling even more frustrated and unsatisfied. 

In my humble opinion, if the author had focused more on the murder mystery and Izzy and her friends trying to get justice for this girl that the rest of their town had purposely forgotten, this would have been a great book. But instead, it spins off into too many different directions including much too much high school drama. Simply cutting some of this soap opera would have made this a tighter and more controlled story.

I have to be honest and say that there are far more positive than negative reviews for this, so please go check them out before making up your mind as to whether you’re going to read this or not. As for me, this is the third book I’ve read by Alexandra Sirowy, and I had many of the same issues with all of them. It might just be that her writing style isn’t for me.

*Krysti, over at http://yaandwine.com absolutely loved this if you’d like to check out another opinion. And she’s having a giveaway!*

One Of Us Is Lying, by Karen McManus ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Bullying, Drugs, Dysfunctional Relationships, Mental Illness, Mystery, Social Media, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: May 30th, 2017

368 Pages

Synopsis: Pay close attention and you might solve this. 

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.

Bronwyn, “the brain”, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.

Addy, “the beauty”, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.

Nate, “the criminal”, is already on probation for dealing.

Cooper, “the athlete”, is the all-star baseball pitcher.

And Simon, “the outcast”, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or, are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

I requested One of Us Is Lying because the mystery was appealing and it sort of reminded me of The Breakfast Club and Pretty Little Liars. To my surprise though this wildly exceeded my expectations. The story is related from the POVs of the four main characters. While at first Bronwyn, Nate, Addy and Cooper seem to fit the ubiquitous high school stereotypes, they are so, so much more. They all have secrets and issues they’re trying to deal with and they come across relatable and sympathetic. I liked every single one of them, even while it was constantly in the back of my head that one of them may be a murderer. Karen McManus does a fantastic job at capturing what modern-day high school life is like, especially with the use of social media. With this realistic setting and likable characters, I completely got distracted in regards to the actual mystery, so it wasn’t until the last couple of chapters that all the puzzle pieces began coming together for me and I guessed who the person was behind Simon’s death. The ending is perfect, but not in the way where everyone rides off happily into the sunset. While there are some positive moments, there are others where certain people have to face the consequences of their actions and there were some plot lines that were purposely left open. I was fine with all of it, because like the rest of the story, it made everything messily real. There’s just one aspect that prevents me from giving this a perfect rating, and I’m sorry that I have to be vague. I can’t really go into it too much because that would involve unveiling a major spoiler. All I can say is that it involved mental illness and I thought it was glossed over a bit. Otherwise, this book is bound to be a phenomenal hit with teens and adults who enjoy YA fiction. It would also make a terrific movie or even tv series. I honestly can’t wait to see what Karen McManus comes out with next!

 

 

Castaways – By Jessika Fleck – 4.0 Stars

Tags

Bullying, Fantasy, Friendship, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Teen for providing and eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

320 Pages

Synopsis: The Castaway Carnival: fun, mysterious, dangerous.

Renowned for it’s infamous corn maze…and the kids who go missing in it.

When Olive runs into the maze, she wakes up on an isolated and undetectable island where a decades-long war between two factions of rival teens is in full swing.

Trapped, Olive must slowly attempt to win each of her new comrades’ hearts as Will–their mysterious, stoically quiet, and handsome leader–steals hers.

Olive is only sure about one thing: her troop consists of the good guys, and she’ll do whatever it takes to help them win the war and get back home.

The Castaways is a clever novel that is a combination of Mean Girls and Lord of the Flies. As the story begins, Olive Maxi Gagmuehler is being tormented by three high school classmates. A couple of the things they do to her are definitely cringe-worthy, so beware. Everything comes to a head one night when after being once again attacked, at a carnival, Olive runs into a corn maze and suddenly finds herself trapped on an island with teens from different time periods. the only thing they have in common is they were all running away from something or someone, when they landed n this mysterious island. Olive is someone that many teens will relate to, especially if they’re victims of bullying. While she’s clearly terrified of her attackers, she also fights back against her tormenters. Once she’s on The Island, it quickly becomes apparent that this is no oasis of safety. While the teens and two young children in her group are for the most part welcoming, there’s another group that seems determined to wipe them out. But one of the best parts about this story is that nothing and no one is what they seem. Olive is the one constant, and she not only becomes the catalyst for change on the Island, but she goes through a journey of self-discovery that leaves her a stronger person by the end of the book. There were a couple of things that prevented this from being a perfect read for me. While I liked Will, Olive’s love interest, I never really bought into their romance for some reason. I’m not sure if it was just me, but there just didn’t seem to be any sparks. It almost seemed like they were forced together because of the circumstances, rather than there being real emotion behind their relationship. And, there were a couple of plot holes, particularly in regards to Olive’s tormenters that weren’t filled in enough for me. For the most part though, I thought The Castaways was imaginative and unique. It also does a good job at tackling the subject of bullying and sends a strong message that running away is never a positive solution to solving problems. It’s a book that should hold wide appeal for teens and I think it would also make an excellent selection for book discussion groups.  

Dead Little Mean Girl ~ By Eva Darrows – 2.5 Stars

Tags

Bullying, Friendship, LGBTQ Families, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Teen for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Out Now

304 Pages

Synopsis: Quinn Littleton was a mean girl–a skinny blonde social terrorist in stilettos. She was everything that Emma MacLaren hated. Until she dies.

A proud geek girl, Emma loves her quiet life on the outskirts, playing video games and staying off the radar. When her nightmare of a new stepsister moves into the bedroom next door, her world is turned upside down. Quinn is a queen bee with a nasty streak who destroys anyone who gets in her way. Teachers, football players, other cheerleaders–no one is safe.

Emma wants nothing more than to get this girl out of her life, but when Quinn dies suddenly, Emma realizes there was more to her stepsister than anyone realized.

The cover and premise both caught my eye when I saw Dead Little Mean Girl on NetGalley, but sadly it didn’t live up to my expectations. The best part of this book is Emma. I absolutely loved her! She’s smart, spunky and a self-confessed nerd with a great sense of humor. She definitely needs a confidence booster though, and that’s even before Quinn moves in. I also loved her friends, especially snarky Nikki and Emma’s love interest, Shawn. But then there’s Quinn who invades Emma’s home when their two moms get together. “Mean Girl” nowhere near comes close to describing this girl. There is something seriously mentally wrong with this girl which leads me to my biggest issue with this book. It is so obvious that Quinn is dangerously  unstable, yet none of the adults do anything. There’s lots of threats, blame and hand-wringing, but no one actually does anything to not only stop her from ruining people’s lives, but also to get her the help she so desperately needs. When I read the afterward, the author talks about why she was inspired to write this book. She wanted people to see that even bullies at times are hurt and frightened and don’t know how to deal with their feelings or ask for help which results in them lashing out.  I really do admire what she was trying to accomplish here. The problem is that Quinn is so one-dimensionally toxic that by the end it’s impossible to feel any sympathy for her. At this point Emma supposedly realizes that there was more to Quinn than people realized, but honestly, there really wasn’t. She was just a horrible, possibly psychopathic girl, who because she was angry over her parent’s divorce, set out to destroy the lives of anyone who had the misfortune to get in her way. I’m giving this 2.5 stars because of Emma (who loves Harry Potter and Supernatural by the way) and the diversity that was shown. Otherwise, I’m sad to say that while Eva Darrows’ intentions were honorable, the idea behind this book was far better than the actual execution. 

The Fall Of Lisa Bellow ~ By Susan Perabo – 3.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Bullying, Child Abduction, Family Relationships, Literary Fiction, PTSD

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 14th, 2017

352 Pages

Synopsis: What happens to the girl left behind?

A masked man with a gun enters a sandwich shop in broad daylight, and Meredith Oliver suddenly finds herself ordered to the filthy floor, where she cowers face to face with her nemesis, Lisa Bellow, the most popular girl in her eighth grade class. The minutes tick inexorably by, and Meredith lurches between comforting the sobbing Lisa and imagining her own impending death. Then the man orders Lisa Bellow to stand and come with him, leaving Meredith the girl he left behind, 

After Lisa’s abduction, Meredith spends most days in her room. As the community stages vigils and searches, Claire, Meredith’s mother, is torn between relief that her daughter is alive, and helplessness over her inability to protect or even comfort her child. Her daughter is here, but not.

The Fall Of Lisa Bellow is the first book I’ve read by Susan Perabo. While I had a few issues, I thought she did a fantastic job getting into her characters’ psyches, which made this a very interesting read. The story is told for the most part from the first person POVs of Meredith, and her mother Claire. Thirteen-year-old Meredith is what really holds this book together. Seeing the trauma she goes through during and after the robbery and abduction of her classmate, who is your classic mean girl is heartbreaking. Perabo has a very descriptive style of writing which made me feel as though I was in the sandwich shop with the two girls as they laid on the sticky linoleum floor, terrified beyond belief, and trying to comfort one another. Meredith is extremely sympathetic as a young teen dealing with the aftermath, others expectations of her, and her PTSD. The way she deals with all this has her mind wandering at times into the fantasy realm. One scenario has her observing what Lisa is going through with her abductor. The other has her fantasizing that she and Lisa were both abducted. Both scenarios come across realistically, but the author meanders a little too much with them. The chapters that are told from Claire’s perspective are the ones I had the most trouble with because I disliked her immensely. Without going into spoiler territory, some of Claire’s thoughts and actions are pretty horrifying even before the abduction of Lisa. She loves her children, but she’s selfish and displays an appallingly skewed moral compass. Making things worse is that she and her husband are completely clueless when it comes to helping Meredith and her brother Evan who is still recovering from a trauma of his own. The loving relationship and dialogue between Meredith and Evan were my favorite parts of the book. I think they do a far better job at helping each other than any of the adults in the story. I wasn’t thrilled by the ending which left me with questions I really wanted answered, but I understand why the author chose to go this route. Overall, The Fall Of Lisa Bellow is less a thriller, and more a psychological drama that takes a thought-provoking look at the people affected by a child’s abduction. Susan Perabo has an interesting style of writing and I’ll definitely be on the lookout for any future books by her.

 

You’re Welcome, Universe ~ By Whitney Gardner – 5.0 Stars

Tags

Bullying, Deaf culture, Eating disorders, Graffiti Artists, LGBTQ Families, Relationships, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 7th, 2017

304 Pages

Synopsis: When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School For the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful (albeit illegal) graffiti mural.

Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a one-way ticket to a “mainstream” school in the suburbs, where she’s treated like an outcast as the only deaf student. The last thing she has left is her art, and not even Banksy himself could convince her to give that up. 

Out in the ‘burbs, Julia paints anywhere she can, eager to claim some turf of her own. But Julia soon learns that she might not be the only vandal in town. Someone is adding to her tags, making them better, showing off–and showing Julia up in the process. She expected her art might get painted over by cops. But she never imagined getting dragged into a full-blown graffiti war.

Told with wit and grit by debut author Whitney Gardner, who also provides gorgeous interior illustrations of Julia’s graffiti tags, You’re Welcome, Universe introduces audiences to a one-of-a-kind protagonist who is unabashedly herself no matter what life throws in her way.

After reading You’re Welcome, Universe the first word that popped into my head was “Wow!” I started this at 9 p.m. last night and couldn’t put it down until I reached the last page around midnight. The story is told from the first person POV of Julia who is deaf, Indian, and has two moms. So yes, this book is extremely diverse. I know we’re still in the early part of 2017, but I already know Julia is going on my top ten list of favorite fictional characters for this year. She’s confident in who she is and isn’t afraid to stand up for herself. She’s sarcastically funny and downright blunt at times, which I absolutely loved. Because she was hurt badly by her former best friend, she has some serious trust issues which makes her eventual friendship with a girl who she nicknames “YP” even more touching. Both girls have been the victims of betrayal so their relationship is rocky and slowly develops throughout the course of the story. While the deaf culture is thoroughly explored in this book, it’s not the only theme. There’s also: bullying, body image, racism, eating disorders, and “slut shaming”. These are all blended into the story in a very realistic way, and I was impressed that the author managed to balance all of these successfully in a just over 300 page book. But what’s really at the heart of this book is Julia’s graffiti, and how it helps her cope with the stresses in her life. As the premise states, the Julia’s graffiti tags are very much a part of her story. The black and white illustrations literally leap off the page and fit in perfectly with the narrative. In my opinion Whitney Gardner is a refreshing and vibrant new voice in YA fiction. You’re Welcome, Universe is an incredible debut and one that I can’t recommend highly enough for teens and adults. It’s touching and full of humor, and Julia isn’t a character you’ll forget anytime soon!

The Hundred Lies Of Lizzie Lovett ~ By Chelsea Sedoti – 4.5 Stars

Tags

Bullying, Coming of Age Stories, Friendship, Mystery, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: January 3rd, 2017

398 Pages

Synopsis: A teenage misfit named Hawthorn Creely inserts herself in the investigation of missing person Lizzie Lovett, who disappeared mysteriously while camping with her boyfriend. Hawthorn doesn’t mean to interfere, but she has a pretty crazy theory about what happened to Lizzie. In order to prove it, she decides to immerse herself in Lizzie’s life. That includes taking her job…and her boyfriend. It’s a huge risk–but it’s just what Hawthorn needs to find her own place in the world.

By the time I finished The Hundred Lies Of Lizzie I was completely exhausted, but in a good way. The story is told in the first person POV of Hawthorn and being inside her head is a bit like being in an arcade pinball machine where the ball, or in this case the reader, is sent wildly careening around, completely at the mercy of of the player. I know how strange that must sound, but it’s the closest thing I can come up with that describes the way I felt reading this book. To be honest, I think Hawthorn is someone that readers are either going to fall in love with, or wind up incredibly annoyed with. For me it was a mix. During the first few chapters I found myself laughing out loud at many of her antics. But then there came a point where she’s so self-absorbed and immature that she started getting on my nerves. But my annoyance didn’t last long, because it becomes clear that Hawthorn is a lonely girl, bullied by most of her peers, who feels as though she’s unlovable. Her parents love her, and although her popular older brother, Rush and she have a strained relationship, it’s obvious as the story proceeds, he cares about her. And then there’s her best friend Emily, who to be honest is a much better friend to Hawthorn, than Hawthorn is to her. Yet Hawthorn still feels alone and isolated. I think the biggest issue is that she doesn’t know where she fits in, and as a result she pushes away people who care about her and could help her. She also has an overactive imagination which gets her into trouble on more than one occasion. While the mystery centers around the disappearance of Lizzie Lovett, a girl Hawthorn barely knew, she becomes obsessed with not only discovering what happened to her, but also obsessed with the girl herself. Why was Lizzie so popular? Why did everything seem to come easy to her? Everyone loved her, including Rush. After meeting her once, Hawthorn had even dreamt of Lizzie taking her under her wing and offering her guidance, and when this didn’t happen Hawthorn never got over it. Because of this, the mystery actually takes a backseat to the drama around Hawthorn, but that doesn’t make the story any less engrossing. One thing that did bother me a little was Hawthorn’s developing relationship with the older, self-involved Enzo, Lizzie’s boyfriend who was there the night she disappeared. I understood why Hawthorn became fascinated with him, but I never really bought into why he became interested in her as much as he did. There are many secondary characters that come and go, including a caravan of hippies, but instead of taking away from the story, they add color and flavor to it. The ending is about as near to a perfect conclusion as you could ask for, and wraps everything up satisfactorily. I don’t think The Hundred Lies Of Lizzie Lovett will be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you like quirky characters, and you can relate to being an outsider, I highly recommend this. Due to some sexual scenes though, I wouldn’t recommend this for younger teens. Sedoti’s writing is witty and refreshing and I’m looking forward to seeing what she comes out with next.