YA Contemporary

Again Again is a YA contemporary story that takes place over summer and follows our main character Adelaide, a high school girl about to begin her senior year at a private school.  Heartbroken and somewhat depressed, she’s spending her summer as a dog walker.  Her boyfriend has just unexpectedly dumped her and left the country; she’s failed to turn in a major project for one of her classes, which could cause her to be expelled, all while trying to come to terms with her feelings about her brother’s drug addiction.  Over the summer, she encounters some new people, some of whom may or may not become a new love interest.

What’s unique about this book is that certain events in this book are played out in several different multiverses, each resulting in a different outcome. In other words, we see Adelaide’s story play out in a variety of different ways.  It’s kind of like seeing her story unfold in parallel universes where there are numerous versions of herself. She makes different decisions in each multiverse, falls in love with different people, and has different conversations about the same topics.  

This aspect was unusual, in that it allows us to contemplate the “what ifs” in our lives, and look at how changing one decision or saying something differently could change the outcome.  Even the smallest of changes can affect how things turn out. 

For instance, we see her have several different versions of a conversation with her professor or modified versions of the same text message thread with a boy she likes.  In some versions of the storyline, she suffers enormous setbacks and heartbreaks; in others, she finds happiness with someone different.  I especially got a kick of Adelaide’s inner dialog with the dogs that she walks.  

Again again is an experimental novel in an unusual format, and because of that, it’s not the kind of story that you can simply kick back and settle into.  I actually found that the format pulled me out of the story every time we dipped into the multiverses, which I personally found a tad jarring. 

It isn’t easy to discuss the plot, given that there are several different versions of it.  But what I found to be the heart of this novel is Adelaide’s complicated relationship with her brother Toby, which was heart-wrenching in places and hopeful in others. In every multiverse, she navigates her feelings about her brother’s situation: anger, regret, mistrust, fear, but with love at the root of it all.

All in all, I enjoyed Again Again though truth be told, I’m personally not a fan of experimental fiction, and as such, I am not the ideal reader for this story.  Though I did find the multiverse format unique and creative, I also found it a bit difficult to connect with the characters because of it.

But readers who enjoy experimental novels or multiverse storylines should definitely give Again Again a try as it’s a refreshing take on the contemporary novel.  It’s also a story with a lot of depth and many layers, and with a variety of themes such as love, loss, regret, siblings, heartbreak, family dynamics, addiction, self-esteem, the interconnectedness of things, and how even the smallest of choices can have huge repercussions. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for providing a free advanced e-copy of the book.

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How to Speak Boy is a Young Adult contemporary romance and follows our main character Quinn who is hugely competitive in her Speech and Debate team at school. She and an arrogant young man named Grayson are competitive rivals, so much so that Quinn considers him her enemy. But when Grayson and Quinn are forced to pair up as co-captains of the Speech and Debate team, things take an interesting turn as Quinn realizes that Grayson perhaps isn’t the monster that she had built him up to be in her mind.

But though he is fast becoming a friend (and possibly even more?), Quinn doesn’t completely trust him and can’t help but wonder whether his friendly banter is fake and that he plans to sabotage her chances of winning at the finals tournament, something he has purportedly done in the past.

Additionally, events take an interesting turn when a graded test paper belonging to Student (15211) is accidentally placed in Quinn’s receptacle (15511). Because students are only identified by their student numbers, Quinn doesn’t know the student’s identity. So she returns the paper with a note, explaining the mix-up, which then begins a super-sweet back-and-forth correspondence between Quinn and the mystery student.

So not only is she beginning to fall for Grayson, but her curiosity about her mystery correspondent is also peaked, and she begins to develop feelings for the unknown boy. Oh — and Quinn also suspects that Carter, her long-time friend, has feelings for her and is trying to push Grayson out of the way. Now Quinn has to decide who she can trust and whether to listen to her heart instead of her head.

I love the enemies-to-lovers trope and felt that it worked exceptionally well here. The banter between Grayson and Quinn is witty, snarky, and a lot of fun, and both of the characters were extremely likable and relatable. Several of their interactions caused me to cackle out loud or, at the very least, brought a smile to my face.

Many of us can relate to Quinn’s desire for academic perfection and the intense desire to succeed — and all the pressure and stress that goes along with that (some of which she’d created herself). It’s always refreshing to see realistic characters in stories, especially stories about high school and I found myself forming a bond with Quinn right from the get-go. Quinn is spirited, stubborn, feisty, and has the personality, backbone, and style to complement and balance Grayson’s suave and charismatic character.

All in all, How to Speak Boy was a sweet and humorous YA romance with some powerful themes of friendship, love, competitiveness, academic perfection, rivalry, trust, and betrayal. The romance was engaging with a compelling plot and well-defined characters who were a joy to read. The secret note correspondence added extra intrigue to the story that worked perfectly here. I also found the Speech/Debate theme angle to the story refreshing, as I don’t think I’ve read this element in any other book.

My only niggle is not with the story but rather with the synopsis/blurb. I felt that this story would have been even more impressive had the synopsis not revealed the identity of the mystery penpal. Grr! The book did an excellent job of keeping their identity a secret — too bad the synopsis didn’t.

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Shivaun Plozza is an Australian writer who is new to me, but the plot interested me so I couldn’t wait to delve into this book.

Tin Heart is a contemporary novel that follows 17-year-old Marlow Jensen who, suffering from a congenital heart condition, had come to accept the fact that she was going to die…and soon. But that all changes one day when she receives the call that a heart from a 17-year-old boy has become available for transplant.

The transplant is a success, and our story opens one year after the operation during which Marlow is trying to figure out who she is and how she fits into her world. After both she and her peers had thought of herself for so long as “sick girl” or “dying girl,” she’s now at a loss to figure out who she really is.

In her search for meaning, she’s resolved to discover who her anonymous heart donor is, hoping to contact the family in order to express her gratitude. Though transplant recipients are forbidden to contact donor families, Marlow pursues forward with some interesting — and sometimes cringe-worthy — results.

In addition to the intrigue surrounding Marlow’s heart transplant and her search for the donor family, we also delve into Marlow’s unique family. Her mother is a passionate vegan activist who opened a vegan shop next to the neighborhood butcher and has taken up the personal mission of protesting in front of the butcher shop whenever possible. Naturally, this has created quite an enemy of the shop’s owner. She also expects her children to support her and adhere to the same high moral standards as herself. But when the rivalry between Marlow and the butcher’s son Leo (whom she has nicknamed “Butcher Boy) turns into romance, all sorts of humorous hijinks ensue.

Then there’s Marlow’s upbeat always-smiling crossing-dressing younger brother Pip who dresses up for school as though every day were Halloween. I laughed out loud many times at the descriptions of his outrageous and flamboyant costumes, and I found him to be one of the most interesting and likable characters of the book.

Overall, Tin Heart was a beautiful story about a sensitive subject that the author handled with grace. It was a potent story about grief, organ donation and second chances, as well as the importance of family. It was riveting to follow Marlow’s transition from being given a death sentence to that of a recovering survivor, and I loved seeing how she moved from victim mentality to that of a self-confident and resilient young adult — although she made a few morally questionable decisions along the way.

The topic of this novel was an intense one, especially as Marlowe struggled and finally came to terms with the fact that the only reason she is alive is because someone else had to die. Organ donation is one of those subjects that people rarely think about or talk about until disaster strikes, and I don’t recall ever having read a fiction novel where this particular subject matter played a central role. So in this way, the book encourages us to think about this important topic and perhaps even paves the way to discussion with friends and family.

Though the storyline was no doubt a serious one and pulled at the reader’s heartstrings in many places throughout the novel, the story was also sprinkled with plenty of humor, lighthearted banter and wit, rendering it an especially enjoyable and satisfying read.

All in all, Tin Heart is a well-crafted, stunning contemporary novel of many layers, with a huge heart and an important message and is the kind of book that will hit you right in the heart (pun intended). Recommended.

A huge thank you to Shivaun Plozza and Flatiron Books for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

You can check out Tin Heart here at Amazon