YA Contemporary

Review of Echoes Between Us by Katie McGarry

January 14, 2020 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Because of the blurb, I went into this thinking that it was going to be a YA paranormal, given that it follows our main character Veronica who has the ability to see ghosts, specifically the spirit of her recently deceased mom. But I’d classify Echoes Between Us more as a hard-hitting contemporary romance as the paranormal aspect of the story is secondary to the other themes.

Now a good portion of Veronica’s life is consumed by a well-kept secret: she has a brain tumor – the same kind that killed her mom – whose symptoms include crippling migraines. She lives her life with the knowledge that her time on the planet is quickly running out.
But when Veronica ends up working on a school project with Sawyer, the super-popular golden boy/swim team jock at her school, her life completely changes. She discovers that there’s a lot more to Sawyer than first meets the eye. He quite a troubled boy, and because of his dyslexia, he struggles with maintaining his grades, and his family life is unraveling quickly. Moreover, he has resorted to a coping mechanism that could prove deadly for him.

It’s also worth mentioning that the project that Veronica and Sawyer are working on is to prove, through hands-on experience and research, that ghosts exist. So when this unlikely pair comes together, they end up questioning their stereotypes, and both end up learning and growing in the process. They each also have to make some extremely difficult decisions about their present life and their future. And of course, they fall in love.

What I enjoyed about this book is how it alternated between the POV of Veronica and Sawyer, so we got to see what was going on in each of their heads and where each of them was coming from. Additionally, most of Sawyer’s chapters include snippets from a diary written in the early 1900s by a girl named Evelyn, who had Tuberculosis and was hospitalized in a TB sanatorium (the quotes are actually from a real-life diary, which added an extra-special aspect to the story). I also enjoyed the enemies-to-lovers element of the story, one of my favorite tropes, which was exceptionally well done here and felt that Sawyer and Veronica fit together perfectly, with each of them complementing the other.

The characters, especially our two main ones, are so well-written and so realistic that they practically jump from the page, and I couldn’t help but become immediately attached to the both of them. I loved Veronica. She’s strong, brave, resilient, and feisty, and I adored how she lived life on her own terms and to hell what anyone else thought of her. Sawyer is also an admirable character who is also strong, complex, resilient, and confused – and someone who has to make some tough choices regarding his family. They both have to deal with some pretty intense and serious emotional issues.

This ended up being quite a hard-hitting but empowering story. Addiction is a huge theme in this story where Sawyer is addicted to dangerous adrenaline rushes, and his mother is an alcoholic. What I liked was how the novel approached this theme in a non-judgmental and positive manner.

The novel also dealt with several other sensitive topics such as death, enablers, grief, terminal illness, mental illness, depression, alcoholism, the pressure to be always perfect, bullying, dysfunctional families, acceptance, and love. So what I thought was going to be a fluffy ghost story ended up being an intense emotional journey.

Echoes Between Us is such a multi-layered story with several different storylines and moving parts, all of which blend together beautifully. And the ghost hunting aspect of the story is a lot of fun and adds a compelling additional element to the narrative.

This book wrecked me in the best and most unexpected ways. It’s a sucker-punch of a story that blew me away. It’s emotional, sobering, and profound, and I enjoyed every single moment. From start to finish, this endearing story held me in rapt attention, and I would definitely read more by this author.

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Review of How to Speak Boy by Tiana Smith

January 9, 2020 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

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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Review of Tin Heart by Shivaun Plozza

February 12, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

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.

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Review of Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

January 21, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

I went into this book knowing pretty much nothing about it and was an amazing read it turned out to be.

Enter Darius

Darius the Great Is Not Okay follows Darius, a friendless, tea-obsessed clinically-depressed, half-Persian, half-American teen who refers to himself as a “Fractional Persian”; that is to say, he isn’t all that connected to his Persian family or culture, he doesn’t feel like a very good Persian; hell, even his little sister speaks better Farsi than he does.

Darius is nerdy and awkward, terrible at sports and feels as though he doesn’t really fit in anywhere. At school, he is the chubby loner who is a prime target for bullies.

Enter the Übermensch

It doesn’t help that Darius also has a super-critical disapproving father who has taken on the task of monitoring and making snide comments about every bite of food Darius puts into his mouth, continually reminding the boy that he needs to lose weight. It’s interesting how Darius always refers to his father by his first and last name: Stephen Kellner said this, Stephen Kellner said that. Another favorite name Darius has for this father is übermensch, given that Stephen Kellner is a handsome blond German who, in Darius’s eyes, seems to be the perfect idealized man.

But overall, Darius feels that he is a huge disappointment to his father and the way he sees it, his father makes no effort to hide that disappointment. The one thing that both Darius and his father have in common, however, is that they both need to take daily medication, so their depression doesn’t get out of hand.

A trip to Iran

Darius’s life changes when he’s told that he’s going to be taking a trip to Iran for the first time with his mom, dad and sister to meet his mother’s family, including grandparents that up to this point, he has only known via Skype. The reason for the trip is that his grandfather, Babou, has a brain tumor and doesn’t have much time left.

I think this was the first book that I’ve read that was set in Iran, so I really appreciated learning about the Persian culture and the vivid descriptions of the food, historical landmarks, and customs. I especially enjoyed the peppering of Farsi throughout the story.

Darius’s first friend

In Iran, Darius meets a boy named Sohrab, a neighbor boy who is quite close to Darius’s grandparents and everything changes. First off, Sohrab convinces Darius to play soccer with him, and his friends and Darius is surprised that he actually likes it — and is even more surprised to discover that he’s quite good at it! Then, they visit various historical landmarks together, and through Sohrab, Darius learns more about his heritage, and he begins to feel like a true Persian for the very first time. Sohrab even calls his Darioush – the original Persian version of his name.

Darius soon discovers that he can not only confide in Sohrab, but Sohrab seems to actually understand him, perhaps being the only person in Darius’s life who does. He also makes Darius feel included, like he belongs. But most importantly, Sohrab helps him to realize his self-worth and helps him to accept who he is.

Darius and Sohrab

I enjoyed the well-written portrayal of the many relationships in this book, but Darius and Sohrab have the most heartwarming friendship that I’ve come across. It was a delight watching them grow closer and as got to know each other. In the beginning, we saw as Darius struggled with body image issues and mental health issues, but as his relationship with Sohrab deepened, we see him begin to embrace his cultural roots and accept himself for who he is.

It was quite an emotional journey that Darius went on and a fun one for the reader to experience.

The Importance of Family and Friends

One of the consistent themes running throughout this book was the importance of family and friends. Family seemed to be especially important, especially since it plays such an essential part of Darius connecting with his Persian heritage. But moreover, it was beautiful to see Darius bond with his Persian grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all of whom he’d never met in person.

But aside from the friendship between Darius and Sohrab, my favorite relationship in the book was the fragile connection between Darius and his father. Even though they both lived with depression, Darius didn’t feel at all that close with his father. In fact, their relationship was frosty, tense and fraught with miscommunication, and the only closeness between the two of them really was when they silently watched Star Trek together every evening.

But then, they both begin to view each other in different ways, and both start to understand that things are not always as we perceive them. I love the fact that being in Iran in Yzad not only brought Darius to self-acceptance but also helped mend the relationship between him and his father and illustrated nicely how our assumptions can often cause us to mistrust and misunderstand others.

Depression Representation

I really liked the representation of clinical depression in this book. We learn early on that Darius and his father both are living with depression, though it isn’t central to the plot. But there are several touching and poignant discussions on mental health, and through these conversations, the characters acknowledge how challenging it can be to manage clinical depression but that it can, ultimately, be controlled.

It was refreshing to see depression discussed so openly between family members and I thought that the mental health elements were handled expertly which isn’t surprising once we learn in the author’s note that this is an #ownvoices representation.

Verdict

Darius the Great Is Not Okay is an emotionally compelling story that deals with many serious topics: clinical depression, feeling like you don’t belong, cultural and personal identity, feeling that you’re not good enough, grief, friendship, our bonds with others and the strained relationship between a father and son who are unable to communicate with each other. But most of all, this was a lovely coming of age book about a boy reconnecting with his Persian heritage and discovering himself in the process — and realizing that in fact, he DOES belong. Darius is such a unique and relatable protagonist, and you couldn’t help fall in love with him.

The other characters in the book were equally amazing and equally complex. I enjoyed delving into this big Persian family as they learn to accept and understand each other and it was refreshing to see that they all had various flaws and imperfections, but loved each other nonetheless.

So all in all, Darius the Great Is Not Okay is a story with memorable and endearing characters that is full of heart and I absolutely loved it.

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Review of Perfect Ten by L. Philips

January 13, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Perfect Ten follows Sam Raines, who after having broken up with boyfriend Landon, two years prior, is lonely. He’s ready to find a new boyfriend, but that’s not an easy task given that there’s only one other gay kid at his school that he knows of. His best friend Meg, who is a Wiccan, offers to perform a love spell for Sam. All he has to do is make a list of the top ten traits that he wasn’t his new boy to have and then petition the Goddess.

Now Sam is not a believer in Meg’s religion but decides to give a go, figuring his love life could use all the help it can get. So in a midnight cemetery ritual involving candles, the elements and a spell recited in Latin, Sam burns his list, thus sending out his intent to the universe. Much to Sam’s surprise, the spell seems to have worked — but not quite in the way he’d hoped. Instead of bringing one perfect guy to his doorstep, the spell brings three of them. There’s Gus, the debonair and swoon-worthy new French exchange student; Travis, the super-sexy and flirtatious bisexual rockstar with a huge heart; and Jamie, the adorable angelic-looking artist whose face lights up every time he sees Sam. Oh, and there’s also Sam’s ex-boyfriend Landon who still seems to hold a special place in Sam’s heart causing Sam much confusion.

As it turns out, all of them make a play for Sam’s heart, and now all Sam has to do is choose.

What I Liked

First off, I love the cover. It was eye-catching, aesthetically pleasing and super-cute, letting us know that we’re in store for a sweet and fluffy read.

I was in the mood for something that wasn’t too heavy, and this book fit the bill. It was a fun blend of teen romance with a tad of magical realism thrown in resulting in a swoony young adult romantic comedy. It was fun journeying along with Sam who, wanting to explore his options, struggled to choose a new boyfriend from several equally charming contenders. But of course, it’s not as easy as it sounds leading to much drama and both romantic and sexual tension, all of which renders the story compelling.

For the most part, I liked Sam’s character though there’s no denying that he is flawed like the rest of us and ends up making some stupid mistakes. But he felt realistic to me. He was so caught up in the idea that he now had romantic options that he felt that is was okay to “date around” a bit until he made his decision. Not surprisingly, Sam learned that not everyone was okay with this. Lesson learned. But still — I found it refreshing and fun to read a story featuring a teen who had multiple suitors.

I liked the secondary cast of characters and also found them relatable. I especially enjoyed the friendship between Sam, Landon, and Meg and felt that the events in their relationship demonstrated the ups and downs of friendship nicely, especially how loyalties become tested from time to time. I felt that Landon and Meg were believable, well-developed characters, both of which I could relate to. I also liked how Meg’s and Sam’s dating life and romantic interests led to several interesting and frank discussions about love and sex.

Additionally, I felt the magical realism aspect of the story really lent a feeling of fun and intrigue to the story. Truth be told, it was the magical realism aspect of the story that caused me to pick it up. I liked the premise of high school kids do a spell, the spell works and they have to deal with the fallout and learn lessons in the process.

That being said, I did like the inclusion of Wicca in the story and thought that the author did an excellent job of representing Meg and her involvement with the Wiccan religion in a respectful way. This was especially evident when Meg, explaining her religion says:

“The great thing about Wicca is that you don’t need to use any fancy spells or words if you don’t want to. You just have to speak from the heart.”*

On that same note, I did enjoy the representation in the book. We had several gay characters and at least one bisexual character. I also loved how much of the story focused on art. Sam was a writer (though I don’t recall him having actually written anything), Travis was a musician, and Jamie was an artist, and it was through their creativity they all connected, which really resonated with me.

I thought the ending was well done and enjoyed how it all turned out, especially given that there was a huge “fake-out” at the end. The conclusion was romantic and satisfying, with a HEA.

What I Didn’t Like

One of the main things that I disliked was how the French foreign exchange student’s dialog was written phonetically. I hate it when authors try to write an accent or a dialect in this way, and it rarely works. It certainly didn’t here, and I found it super annoying. I also felt that the author resorted to negative stereotypes in the portrayal of Gus, portraying him more like a French caricature than a person.

While I did find Sam likable (mostly), there were some things about his character that bothered me. He was at times almost over-the-top shallow and self-centered, and he struck me being oblivious to the feelings of others. He often didn’t treat the people in his life all that well. I recall a couple of scenes in the book in which he shames Meg into not losing her virginity with her boyfriend though he regularly had sex with Landon while they were dating. I felt he could as supported her a little better and at times, he didn’t feel like he was a very good friend.

Okay, maybe it’s just me, but I’m surprised that nobody had an issue with 21-year-old Travis trying to get 17-year-old Sam in bed. In fact, just about every conversation between Travis and Sam revolved around sex. I just found it surprising that none of Sam’s friends took issue with Travis’s age, especially considering that it is illegal in most states for an adult to have sex with someone who’s underage.

Verdict

In spite of our main character being a tad bit too self-centered, I thought that Perfect Ten was a sweet, lighthearted gay romance that I overall enjoyed. In fact, I read the book in a couple of sittings because I couldn’t put it down, so that says something about its strength as a story. I especially enjoyed the heart-warming conclusion that gives you all the right feels so in this way, it was quite an engaging story. I probably would give this one 3.5 stars.

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Review of The Evolution of Jeremy Warsh by Jess Moore

December 29, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Evolution of jeremy warsh book cover The Evolution of Jeremy Warsh takes place in the late 1990s and follows Jeremy Warsh, a high school senior and artist who, ever since his grandpa passed away, has put aside his comic art and not touched it. Because he and his mom are struggling financially, Jeremy doesn’t count on going to college but instead, expects a boring life of drudgery.

Then things begin to slowly change for Jeremy. His best friend Kasey comes out of the closet, he receives an unexpected gift from his father and his other friend Stuart begins dating. Inspired by his friends, Jeremy picks up his pencil and starts drawing again, creating a sassy, wise-cracking, no-nonsense, in-your-face character he named Penny Kind. What’s special about Penny, however, is that she speaks to him — literally — and is not afraid to expect and demand more from him than he’s currently giving. That is to say, she holds him accountable for all of his actions and inactions, causing him to continually reevaluate his life and his decisions.

This is especially true after he kisses a boy at a party and he begins to question everything he thought he knew about himself as new and confusing feelings surface. I really enjoyed how Jeremy’s art not only helps him cope with his problems and insecurities but also shows him ways to overcome them, opening his eyes to the different paths available to him.

It was so much fun journeying along with Jeremy as he experienced the ups and downs of life in high school: dealing with high school bullies, facing an uncertain future, finding his place in the world, feeling like an outsider, supporting his friends, supporting his family and discovering and accepting his emerging sexuality. I found him to be not only a lovable and empathetic character but also a wonderfully relatable and memorable one who revealed more and more of himself as his understanding of the bigger world around him unfolded.

Additionally, the diverse cast of secondary characters in the book is truly delightful. These are characters who not only amuse and entertain us but also touch us, and prompt us to think about who we are and how we want to live our lives. Jess Moore really seems to understand the teenage soul — the doubt, the uncertainty, the longing, the self-awareness, the challenges and the confusion and in so doing ended up creating a believable world with plenty of heart.

I also thought the burgeoning romance in the story between Jeremy and Matt was soft, gentle and well drawn. I liked the fact that it was slow and not at all rushed, resulting in a sweet and heartwarming affection that didn’t take away from the rest of the story. It was fun, however, to see Jeremey move from a place of doubt and confusion to a place of acceptance and certainty.

This feel-good story has everything you need for the perfect high school senior story: a tight group of witty and charming friends, a zombie homecoming dance, a high school senior identity crisis, an ultra-cool mom, a will they/won’t they romance, and that somewhat melancholy high that comes with endings and new beginnings. All in all, a delightful story!

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