Review: Vibes

Vibes – Amy Kathleen Ryan

The thing I don’t enjoy about most books with a psychic character is that the plot often hinges on that character not believing in herself or what she’s seeing, that terrible thing happens, and then the character learns to finally trust herself.  Kristi, this misanthropic high schooler at the center of this book has the opposite problem.  She puts so much stock in the “vibes” she’s picking up, that she doesn’t question when what she’s hearing doesn’t go along with what other people can clearly see.  She’s funny and smart and might have more friends if she didn’t spend all day listening to thoughts about how big her boobs are and what types of food they would look hot covered in.

There’s a new boy who likes her, a school project about personal growth which forces her to confront some unfinished business with the most popular boy at school, and her prodigal father has returned from Africa but he’s not trying hard enough.

I enjoyed this book a lot.  Even the seemingly awful characters are given their due and Kristi’s journey from thinking she knows everything about everything and she doesn’t need anybody, to beginning to open up and stop making so many assumptions about the world and people around her, is believable and natural.  I liked her at the beginning of the book, but I liked her a lot more by the end.

I also successfully handed off this book to a teenager as soon as I was done with it, someone looking for books with a love triangle, but called something that starts with a “d.”  So if anyone can think of a word for love triangle like that, let me know.

Review: Under the Rose

Under the Rose: An Ivy League Novel – Diana Peterfreund

Senior year at Eli University kicks off inauspiciously when a botched initiation night leads one of Rose and Grave’s new recruits to bail on the whole society.  The first club to have female members in its 177-year history, their battle last year against the society’s “patriarchs” hasn’t united them as much as exposed the cracks in their camaraderie.  And now, both current members and patriarchs are receiving threatening, and specific, emails asking for money in return for silence about the society’s practices and the scandals of its members.  They try to band together to roust the traitor, but with everyone under suspicion, they find themselves drifting apart and different factions begin to form.

Amy, the narrator, has grown up a bit since the last book.  She’s still insecure about some of the wrong things, but it doesn’t take as much for her inner toughness to come out.  She’s smart and relatable, and this time she gets to have some hot (and moderately explicit) sex.  While I would add the first book in the series to YA collections, this one isn’t as neat a fit there.  But there’s nothing so objectionable that a teenager should be discouraged from reading it. 

It’s hard to discuss some of the themes of the book without spoiling the plot, but one of my main objections was what seemed to be the author’s blind spot about something, that turned out to be just the character’s, and ended up being dealt with well.  And I enjoyed how a lot of the characters were allowed to act like people and make mistakes and to be an ally or enemy depending on the situation.  It also tackled religion without being scornful of the whole enterprise, just the wackos.  I liked that the way the plot unfolded was true to to story that had been told all along.  There’s a lot of juicy wish-fulfillment, but also a lot of big ideas about networks and power and success and how women fit in.  I’d invite Amy Haskel to that dinner party I’d like to have with Frankie Landau-Banks.

Review: Generation Dead

Generation Dead – Daniel Waters

Goth teen Phoebe has exactly one reliable friend, another goth girl, Margi.  One of her other best friends, Adam, is a popular football player who doesn’t acknowledge her at school, and one of them is dead.  And Colette isn’t one of those high functioning zombies who moves well or pretends to eat lunch in the cafeteria.  She barely registers Phoebe’s hellos.  On the other hand you have a living-challenged kid like Tommy, good enough to make the football team.  But dead enough to cause protests.  Dead enough for death threats.

Most of the living are uncomfortable with the teenagers who come back from the dead.  And it’s only American teens who do.  There are no laws to protect or govern them, and most families abandon them.  Posses roam the country executing all the undead they can find and there are rumors that they’re government sponsored.

Now Phoebe and Tommy are leading a small, mixed group of teens who want to increase zombie acceptance.  They’ve got the backing of a creepy and wealthy foundation, but there a few jocks who would do anything to stop them.  Especially once Phoebe and Tommy seem to be more than friends.

Obviously an allegory for race, I was hoping this book would dig deeper than the obvious to deal with the exceptional members of persecuted minorities who have always been able to rise above their circumstances.  But most of the book was concerned with telling a “isn’t it awful” story about what it might be like to be treated as less than human.  It’s more of a history lesson than consideration of current race relations in America.

There is a lot of plot left unresolved, like what exactly is the deal with the rich, creepy foundation and other more spoilerific concerns.  A sequel seems in order and hopefully it will dig a bit deeper.  Desegregation is fertile ground and maybe a bit beyond the usual xenophobia explored by the zombie genre, I wish this book had some bigger ideas.

Review: It Girl

The It Girl – Cecily von Ziegesar

I have little faith that von Ziegesar is actually writing any of these books at this point, but I had hoped that the tone and wit would find a way to continue. Sadly I can’t say they have. Maybe later in the series the characters will develop into more than broad stereotypes and there will be something meaty worth both the mockery and love shown to the Gossip Girl characters.

GG ended when everyone graduated high school, but younger sibling Jenny Humphrey is just a sophomore now. After getting pushed out of fancy Constance Billiard, she’s been accepted at Waverly Academy, an equally fancy boarding school. Starting over is not as easy as she thought and the girls here are just as manipulative as the ones she left behind, and the boys just as attracted to her large boobs.

What this book did well was in showing how a different type of rich kid acts, a more New Englandy type who wears frayed shorts and old flip flops. Whose family has a yacht, but wears the same designer bikini from five years ago. It wasn’t a bad book, just not a sparkling one.

I miss Blair, and even Serena.

Review: Sweethearts

Sweethearts by Sarah Zarr

Growing up, all the kids who found themselves on the margins of kid-society were glad for the more obvious losers, like stutterer, bookworm and pudgy Jennifer. She spends recess walking the periphery of the playground, never talking to anyone and hoping no one will notice her. Until the day she decides to approach fellow outcast Cameron and asks to be his friend. They strike up a quick and passionate friendship, relying on one another to not only get through the school day, but through their problems at home. Until one day, Cameron vanishes. She is taunted at school, and told he has died. Her mother says nothing, believing this lie will be kinder than the truth.

But now Jenna’s a well-liked high school student with a handsome boyfriend. Her mother remarried well, pulling them out of poverty. She goes to an alternative high school, but still feels the need to put on a happy and well-adjusted front, never letting Jennifer resurface. Until the day Cameron comes back to town. He doesn’t just remind Jenna of who she once was, but of a terrible secret they share. Jenna is forced to come to terms with the person she’s become, the person she’s hiding from the world, and her own inability to save the person she loves the most in the world. Jenna comes to realize how strong has always been and that she doesn’t need to hide from anything, that by burying things you only give them more power over you.

This book was very readable and drove compulsively forward while leaving the reader with a deep sense of discomfort and uneasiness. One is reminded strongly of the feeling of powerlessness of being a child and how scary the authority of grownups can be. Jenna’s neglectful mother never meant her any harm, she just thought Jenna had everything under control. And when Cameron comes back and she immediately begins to mother and overprotect him, it’s because as strong and handsome and grownup as he’s become, it’s still obvious that he’s a damaged and scared little boy. The secret that Jenna and Cameron have been hiding is revealed slowly through flashbacks over the course of the book, and it’s heartbreaking not because it’s lurid, but because of the innocence Jenna lost and the fear it put into her. You really come to care about and believe in all the characters in this book, even with their flaws, and to hope the best for them, while knowing that life is tough and not everyone makes it through unscathed.

Review: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Sophomore and former Debate-Club geek Frankie is tired of being overlooked and underestimated at her posh boarding school. Freshman year her problems were an older and more popular sister, a cheating boyfriend, and an unmemorable face. Now the issue is how very noticeable she became over the summer, growing up and out in all the right places. Almost immediately she snags a popular boyfriend, but her age and her gender conspire to keep her seeming innocuous. Frankie knows she should demand better treatment from her gorgeous, entitled, but still generally nice, boyfriend Matthew. But she doesn’t want to rock the boat because of how much she looks up to him and his golden-boy friends. When she discovers they all belong to the same secret society as her father, she is jealous not because of any power or influence they wield but because of the bonds they are forming that will help them throughout their lives. She knows that while she might be allowed to eat lunch with them, she will never fundamentally be one of them. Determined to earn their respect, she shadows Matthew and learns the secrets of the group. Seizing an opportunity to control their behavior without their realization, she begins orchestrating large-scale pranks meant as commentary on the role of privilege and control in all of their lives. Though sadly few students seem to understand the significance of the pranks, least of all the boys carrying them out.

Lockhart has always been one of my favorite YA authors and all of the reviews and mentions I’ve seen of this book have raved about it. I didn’t find it quite as compelling. It’s ideas, and they were Big Ideas, often overwhelmed the story and characters. Frankie is a type of feminist I am glad exists, one I would never want to be, but would probably enjoy arguing with at a dinner party. She is so thoroughly steeped in the norms of the patriarchal power structure that she thinks the only way to succeed is to be a better boy than the boys. And yes, “patriarchy” is a word used often in this book. Frankie also loves Foucoult’s Discipline and Punish which inspires in her the idea of fighting against the panopticon. With all the Big Ideas in the book, it was easy to get thrown off when I disagreed with the author/narrator’s point of view, though I probably agreed twice as often as I didn’t. Frankie is tired of feeling powerless and only feels like she isn’t when she gains the upper hand over the powerful men around her. Which she finally feels she has done by the end of the book when a friend and adversary admits he no longer likes her, but respects her. An interesting but flawed book for intelligent and socially conscious teens.