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Review of Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Abertalli

June 5, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

I was so excited for this book and was really looking forward to delving into the Simonverse once again.

THE STORY

So the story picks up on year after the events where Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda left off. Leah on the Offbeat is a continuation of the Creekwood series, with Simon vs. The Homo sapiens Agenda being Creekwood #1. Though it can be read as a standalone, it is advisable to read Simon first as this would help to give you a better feel for the characters. Not only that, Simon is well worth the read!

Leah and her friends are busy getting things in order for their senior year, including where to go to University. Because of this pressure of which school to go to and whether that will mean leaving a boyfriend/girlfriend behind, tensions are running high, especially once friends of hers begins to fight and her rock-solid circle of friends begins to crumble slowly.

But this novel really revolves around the fact Leah is bisexual, though she hasn’t told any of her friends, not even Simon. It’s not that Leah’s bisexuality is a big deal — she’s entirely comfortable with her sexuality.

What’s throwing her for a loop is that she’s falling hard for a girl in her circle of friends with whom she’s not even all that close. In fact, Leah seems to have deliberately kept this person at an arms distance…and now we know why.

Once Leah realizes the depth of her crush on this girl, she then has to figure out what to do: Should she pursue the girl of her heart and break her own heart in the process because Leah’s nearly 100% sure she’s straight? Or deny her feelings, keep her sights on her future and put the drama aside?

But when this girl begins flirting with Leah and throwing her all kinds of crazy mixed signals, Leah doesn’t know how to deal, fearful that she’s misinterpreting the girl’s signals. So instead of risking her heart and entering into a potentially humiliating situation, she shuts it all down. Risk averted. The question is: what it the right thing to do?

WHAT I LIKED

I felt a bit nostalgic given that this book takes place near the end of our favorite characters’ senior year. It reminded me of the uncertainty and anxiety that I felt during that time as well as the fear of losing friends and the fear of the unknown.

And that’s not even mentioning what was going to happen to those long distance relationships? Did they even stand a chance? I thought the author did an excellent job of fleshing out all these aspects and in so doing, brought back my own vivid memories of that time period in my own life.

The struggles of Leah and her friends were things most teens face, especially during their last year of high school so, in this way, the story was entirely relatable. I felt like I was back in high school (with both the good and the bad).

I thought Abertalli handled the romance aspect quite well and liked how it wasn’t hurried or rushed. The angst and drama surrounding the Leah and her crush was cute and worked for me, so that made it extra sweet when Leah and her crush finally get together; though I wish it would have occurred a bit sooner.

It was cute that Leah’s crush was seriously flirting with Leah though she refused to see any of the signs, convinced that the object of her affections is 100% hetero. Hence the angst.

I also enjoyed the banter between Leah and her crush — as well as the banter between all the other character’s as well, a lovely device I’ve noticed in all of Abertalli’s novels.

I also loved the fact that there was a road trip — I’ve already said in the past that I’m a sucker for a road trip story. While this wasn’t such a story per se, I did enjoy the trip that Leah and her crush took while they were both still trying to figure the other one out.

And of course, the “event” that occurred during the trip marked a turning point in the novel, followed by plenty of drama and just the right about of angst.

I loved that we got to see many of our favorite (and not-so-favorite) characters from the first book: Simon, Blue, Nick, Abby, Anna, Morgan, Garrett and even the dreaded Martin. We also get some sweet Simon and Blue coverage, for which I was especially grateful.

I also really loved the secondary character of Leah’s mother. She was the ultimate cool mom who possessed an extraordinary amount of patience with Leah. She was also quite funny, and her comments caused me to giggle out loud quite a few times.

What’s nice about these characters, is that though they are a lovable and fun group of people (well, maybe except for Martin), they are also flawed, which renders them all the more human and relatable. We see this is Abertalli’s other novels as well, and she always does an excellent job of pulling it off.

What especially worked for me in this book was that though this story followed a plus-sized protagonist, her weight was not the focus of the story. In fact, Leah doesn’t give a damn about what anyone thinks about her size — she is perfectly happy with her body, and she sums it up nicely when she says:

I swear, people can’t wrap their minds around the concept of a fat girl who doesn’t diet. Is it that hard to believe I might actually like my body?

So rather, this story was about those things that many teenagers have to deal with in discovering who they are in their rapidly changing world.

I also loved how comfortable Leah was with her own bisexuality, though it did confuse me why she hadn’t yet told her friends — especially the gay ones — that she was bisexual.

Maybe to her, it wasn’t something that needed explaining. It simply “was.” As with the Simon book, I feel the author does a masterful job of normalizing LGBTQ relationships and once again, I was overjoyed to see the positive portrayal of LGBTQ people.

So many LGBTQ books in the past were depressing and tragic, so it’s refreshing to read once again a story that’s uplifting and positive.

That being said, I loved the amount of diversity in this book: we had people who were bisexual, gay, straight, fat, skinny, as well as plenty of characters of color. I also loved how the one racist comment was jumped upon immediately and was not merely allowed to slide by.

And for someone who loves Harry Potter, the many Harry Potter references are always appreciated.

Okay, so now let me address the negative points.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

Okay, so I hate to say it, but I didn’t like Leah at all. I loved her a lot in Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda but in this book, she rubbed me the wrong way.

Her overly abrasive personality got in the way of me enjoying this book, and because of it, she was for me an unsympathetic character. She was nearly always snarky, angry, negative, sarcastic, cynical, exceptionally moody, and pretty much rude to everyone around her.

It’s challenging to empathize with a character who seems so hostile to everyone and everything.

I just had a tough time connecting to Leah’s character, especially when she shuts down anytime something goes wrong, or somebody says something she doesn’t like. I found myself thinking quite a few times that she was a whiny brat.

I can’t deny it: she was pretty much a shitty person throughout the majority of the time in the book. She rarely apologized to anyone and treated her mom like absolute crap, which I found especially annoying, considering how nice her mom was to her and how she supported Leah in everything she did.

There’s a huge difference being a character being self-confident and outspoken, and a character being an asshole.

Oh, and there was also the lying, such as when she lied to Garrett about attending his game. Speaking of Garrett, I also didn’t like the way Leah strung Garret along. It was apparent that he had a massive crush on her but she never once thought of letting him down gently and telling him she wasn’t interested.

I have to admit that I also found it a bit difficult buying into the premise of the story. In Simon Vs. The Homo sapiens agenda, we are introduced to Leah, and the girl (I”ll refer to Leah’s crush as “the girl” in order not to give anything away) and they are both completely straight — Leah even confesses her crush on Simon.

Now in this book, Leah is all of a sudden bisexual, and she has a HUGE crush on the girl and supposedly has for quite some time — and the girl, who was also very straight in the last book, now suddenly has a crush on Leah. I had a difficult time buying it.

It also didn’t seem like the book at all that much of a plot — or at least not that engaging of one. There really weren’t any plot twists or surprises to mention of. It was basically thus: angry bi-girl falls for a girl whom she thinks is straight. Straight girl flirts with bi-girl. Bi-girl is mean to straight girl. Will straight girl and bi-girl get together?

VERDICT

The writing itself was excellent and engaging, and I enjoyed the angst and conflict between the characters. I also enjoyed spending time with all of my favorite characters again from the Simonverse, and there was plenty of humor and snark to keep it light and entertaining.

I laughed out loud on plenty of occasions. I also enjoyed getting inside of Leah’s head and seeing the world from her point of view.

Unfortunately, I didn’t love it as much as I hoped I would. There was no point in this book that pulled on my heartstrings at all.

I think that the change in Leah’s personality from the Simon book to this one was a little too jarring for me and I ended up, much to my surprise, somewhat disliking her character — and it’s not easy to love a book when you don’t like with the main protagonist.

Overall, while I did have some problems with Leah’s characters, I didn’t hate this book. But I didn’t love it either.

I just didn’t connect with the characters as much as I did with the first book in this series. I do love Becky Abertalli’s writing and will definitely continue to read her books in the future. In fact, I can’t wait for her collaboration with Adam Silvera (I already preordered it).

This book, however, just wasn’t quite a home run for me.

You can check out Leah on the Offbeat here at Amazon or at The Book Depository.

Review of Blankets by Craig Thompson

June 5, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Blankets is a graphic novel – an enormous coming of age graphic novel about a fellow Wisconsinite and artist named Craig who is searching for meaning in his faith, his connections to family, and the world around him. It’s not a coincidence that the main character’s name is the same as our author, as I do believe the book is autobiographical.

Our hero in this story is a lonely and isolated young man, and through these beautifully drawn panels, we follow Craig’s journey from childhood to adulthood as he navigates the oftentimes challenging world of trying to please one’s parents and doing “what’s right .” In so doing, Craig tries to be true to himself …or should I say, discover himself while trying to fit in.

Through the engaging pages, Craig experiences the joy and exhilaration of — as well as the heartbreak following — a first love, and all the while trying to reconcile it all with his religion or the religion of his parents, which was a small town Fundamentalist Christian religion. I was also brought up in a strict, Fundamentalist religion growing up so, I was able to relate to this on so many levels. So in this way, the story was at times heartbreaking and at other times joyful — painful to read in some parts, hopeful in others. Good memories, as well as bad and I, ended by tearing up on some pages, and smiling in others.

This was one of those books that I absolutely devoured and though it was enormous, flew through it in a couple of sittings. I thought that the illustrations were expressive and moving, and the author’s ability to capture so much emotion in facial expressions of these drawings captivated me.

It’s the kind of story that you can completely lose yourself in — or at least, I did. By way of his brilliant artwork, the author was able to pull me from my world into the mind of an adolescent and all the uncertainty and fear that goes along with that, bringing me back to my childhood as though it were yesterday.

It’s funny — as I was reading this, I thought of it as a quiet read, and it really was. So much was said in the drawings without the need for extraneous words — and that is a difficult feat for an artist to pull it. Craig Thompson did it amazingly well, in my opinion.

And there was so much snow in this book — something those of us who live in the Midwest can definitely relate to so in this way, it would make a perfect winter read.

Overall, I loved this book. It was an emotional and comforting read about discovering one’s relationship with faith, regardless of the type of religion or even lack of any spiritual belief system whatsoever. This book isn’t about having a crisis of faith but rather finding one’s own personal path — the path that’s right for each of us.

I think anyone should be able to appreciate this novel regardless of whether or not one is religious because again, it’s not about religion — it’s about slowly putting ourself together until all the pieces fit properly. Recommended!

You can check out Blankets here at Amazon or at The Book Depository.

Review of Cinder by Marissa Meyer

May 21, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

All I knew about this was that it was a retelling of Cinderella and featured a Cyborg, which kind of gave me a Dr. Who vibe. Given that I’m a huge fan of Dr. Who, I figured that this was something that I’d like.

The Story

The is a dystopian story which takes place in the distant future — I think it was 100 years after World War 4 — in the city of New Beijing and follows a girl named Linh Cinder, a teenage cyborg who is a gifted mechanic. She was injured in a tragic accident in the past — though she has no memory of it — and because of scientific advances, doctors were able to save Cinder though to do so she had to become a cyborg – part human, part machine.

Still, underneath all of her metal, her computerized parts, and her prosthetic limbs, Cinder is human. But regardless, Cyborgs are considered second-class citizens — less than human — shunned by society and owned by their guardians. Cinder is more or less owned by her wicked stepmother Adri and detested by one of her step-sisters.

Each day, Cinder slaves away as a mechanic at the local market, repairing androids and other electronics. Unfortunately, she’s forced to hand over all her money to her stepmother or owner.

Now there are also people — or beings — called Lunars living on the moon who have the ability to manipulate the minds of Earthlings to make them see what they want them to see and do what they want them to do. So naturally, people of the Earth don’t allow these beings to reside on earth because of the danger for humans (though a few of them manage to sneak in).

And then there’s the evil queen Levana with a massive army who controls the minds of all the other Lunars and appears hell-bent on starting a war between the Lunars and the Earthlings with the goal of taking over the earth.

What she wants to do is to force Prince Kai, the crowned prince of the Eastern Commonwealth to marry her and then use her position as Empress of the Eastern Commonwealth to take over of the rest of the Earth.

And there’s also an incurable deadly plague called Letumosis that’s sweeping through the kingdom and killing off the citizens including people close to Cinder.

Then one day, Cinder’s life changes when the handsome Prince Kai when he stops by her booth to have her repair his android. She can’t deny the attraction she feels for the prince, but she knows that she can never act on it, confident that Prince Kai would be repulsed by her, should he learn that she’s actually a Cyborg.

Without giving anything away, let’s just that Cinder discovers a couple of secrets that put her smack in the center of the struggle between the Earth and the Moon, and the future of her planet may rest on the decisions she makes.

WHAT I LIKED

I really liked the premise of the story – taking the Cinderella fairy tale and placing it in a dystopian world where the Cinderella characters is a cyborg. I thought this was exceptionally original and enjoyed the author’s take on it.

I especially liked the fact that Cinder isn’t a passive damsel in distress like in the original story in which the heroine needs a man in order to be happy, but instead, she is a strong and independent woman who takes initiative on her own.

She was also one kick-ass heroine and in spite of the fact that she was a cyborg, found her quite realistic and believable.

The world building in this story was also amazing, and I enjoyed the futuristic city of New Beijing that the author came up with, including the strange new race of magical people on the moon called Lunars and a society in which Cyborgs aren’t that unusual.

The world had kind of a Blade Runner feel to it, I felt. But that could just be because I watched Blade Runner only recently and it was fresh in my mind.

I almost immediately found myself immersed in this strange and intriguing world. I also found it interesting how the author combined several different genres in the story and managed to make it all work: science fiction, dystopian, space opera, action/adventure, fairy tales, and even romance.

I’ve also read many fairytale retellings over the years, most of which haven’t been very good. Cinder, however, succeed in pulling it off while still providing all the essential elements of the Cinderella story – the evil stepmother, working ridiculously hard at menial tasks, a handsome prince, and even a ball. The ball scene, by the way, was awesome!

I thought the plot of the story was gripping with a lot of interesting subplots going on: there’s the deadly plague, Cinder’s plans of escaping New Beijing, political intrigue between Prince Kai and Queen Levana, Cinder’s own family dynamics and the big reveal of Cinder’s childhood and her background. The storyline was quite fast-paced and the premise original enough that I never found myself bored or impatient during the book.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

If you’re expecting major plot twists, there really aren’t any. I think there was supposed to be a huge secret — which was revealed at the end but I had it all figured out when I was less than 20% into the book.

I thought maybe I was wrong or that there would be additional plot twists but there were none. I always figured out well ahead of time what was going to happen. Thus, the story was highly predictable but still enjoyable.

And the romance between Kai and Cinder? I just didn’t feel it. This could be because Kai’s character felt a bit flat to me and I didn’t see as much depth with him as I would have liked.

There was also that insta-love thing going on, which really didn’t make sense in this story, especially considering Kai’s character and societal position. But I suppose this kept in line with the original Cinderella story in which Cinderella and the Prince were stuck by love after one glance.

The characters of the stepmother and Queen Levana were evil through and through with no redeeming qualities. I’ve mentioned this in the past, what I call the Snidely Whiplash syndrome when the villain doesn’t have any redeeming qualities whatsoever or any motivation for the evil they do. This was the case with these two, which made them a tad one dimensional. Adri, Cinder’s stepmother, for example, has no conscience at all and no remorse for how she treats Cinder.

The thing that I most disliked — or should I say detested — about this book was the ending. Or should I say the lack of ending. All of the trust and good faith that the author had built up during the story was utterly destroyed by the cliffhanger ending.

Actually, it didn’t even feel like a cliffhanger — more like the author stopped writing the story in the middle of the book.

There was no plot resolution, no character growth….it just… ended. I should have read the reviews before buying this. If I’d known that it would end abruptly where a chapter break should have been, then I would not have purchased it.

If you follow me, you already know my opinion on cliffhangers so I won’t belabor that point. I just was extremely disappointed that I purchased a book but instead of getting an entire book, ended up getting only part of one.

Final Verdict

I enjoyed this book up until the end. It was a fast-paced, intriguing retelling of the Cinderella story from a refreshing and unique perspective. Though it was predictable, it was nonetheless wildly entertaining and a fun ride.

Unfortunately, the lack of ending ruined it for me and I will not be continuing with the series.

If however, you don’t mind a cliffhanger ending then, by all means, check out the Lunar Chronicles. Cinder is a great start to the series in my opinion, and the entire series is finished from what I understand so you won’t have to wait a year to see what happens. I’ve heard great things about it, and it has many positive reviews. It just wasn’t for me.

You can check out Cinder here at Amazon or at The Book Depository.

Review of the Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton

May 20, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

I admit that I’m a sucker for a witchy story so I couldn’t wait for this book to come out.

THE STORY

The story opens by introducing us to Rona Blackburn, a powerful witch who comes to Anathema island shortly after the island’s founders established themselves. Frightened by the island’s witch, the eight founding father attempt to kill Rona but are unsuccessful. Enraged by the islander’s deception, Rona places a curse upon all their descendants as well as her own.

So then we fast forward to the present day and follow 16 year old Nor Blackburn, Rona’s most recent descendant. Nor tries to keep her ever-growing magical abilities under wraps and life as normal a life as possible.

But the thing with Nor, is that she’s not like any of the other Blackburn witches before her. Up until now, each Blackburn witch had only one supernatural power with they refer to as “Burdens”. For example, her grandmother Judd has the ability to heal.

Nor’s powers, however, seem to be expanding and she’s discovering new abilities all the time. She’s afraid that others may react the way the founding fathers did toward her ancestor Rona — suspect Nor of dipping in Black Magic. Nor keeps her secret to herself, not even confiding in her Grandmother, who’s raised her.

In addition, Nor is dealing with severe emotional trauma suffered at the hands of her powerful and sociopath mother Fern. Though her mother abandoned her when Nor was only a child, the trauma remains and Nor copes by engaging in self-cutting, which I will admit, was difficult to read about.

So then a book surfaces at the Wiccan shop where Nor works entitled “The Price Guide to the Occult” which promises to cast any spell at all for the right price written and authored by none only than Vern Blackburn, Nor’s evil mother.

Moreover, the book divulges actual authentic spells from the Blackburn family. It becomes increasingly obvious to Nor’s family that the book’s success is due to dark, evil magic for which there is always a terrible price.

So the book’s publication sets in motion events tied to black magic and Nor senses that evil connected to that magic is headed straight for the island and has little doubt that this evil will be in the form of her mother.

But the question, is whether Nor’s magical abilities are enough to stop her wicked, murderous mother.

WHAT I LIKED

First off, what a beautiful book! The embossed writing on the hardcover book itself — there is no dust jacket — and the red-edge pages are gorgeous.

As for the story, the author did an excellent job at bringing to life the setting of the small town on Anathema island where we have places such the Sweet & Savory bakery and the Witching Hour Wiccan shop. And we must not forget the creepy cemetery tours as well as the plethora of the animals and plant life that the author describes.

There was really a rich sense of place in the story and it was quite atmospheric, which made the island all the more magical for me. I felt like I was right there along with all the characters.

I found the story itself to be gripping and compelling, though it ended up being a little darker than I had anticipated. I especially enjoyed the backstory of the Blackburn women, which I found fascinating. I would have actually love to know more detail about each of Rona’s descendants.

Nor’s character, while tough to read about at times, was especially multi-layered as she struggled not only with her ever-growing magical powers and the curse placed upon the Blackburn women by her ancestor, but she also had to contend with inner turmoil from being abused and then abandoned by a heartless mother.

There was also her constant struggle not to cut herself as she did in the past. It was heartbreaking to read at times as her urge for self-harm almost overwhelmed her but in a testament to the strength and courage of her character, she was able to overcome those urges, knowing that cutting herself is not the way to deal with her problems. So in this way, she was a character who had to fight not only inner demons and external monsters as well.

I loved all the fresh, complex and original secondary characters in the novel: grandmother Judd and her wife Apothia, Madge, Nor’s best friend Savvy, the enigmatic Gage, her crush, Reed and all the unique island folks.

The author did an excellent job of bringing them all to life, and they jumped off the page for me while I was reading the story. I enjoyed reading about their histories and their life on the island and appreciated how each character introduced was important to the unfolding of the story.

Vern’s character, however, was terrifying and chilling. She was the ultimate villain: vicious, heartless, clever and clearly insane with no remorse. Once Vern appears, the story definitely takes a darker turn as she causes some pretty horrifying, gruesome deaths.

The story also had an intriguing magic system, and I liked the idea that each Blackburn woman possessed only one witchy ability which they called Burdens, and any of them who manifests magic outside of her Burden is engaging in Black Magic, which of course, is a huge no-no. The magic as described in the book is vivid and distinctive — the unique descriptions of Judd healing others and the hand pain she experienced in doing so seemed so life-like that I could almost feel her pain as I read along.

In fact, I found all the magical descriptions equally fascinating. One Blackburn witch had the ability to manipulate minds while another to ease the transition to death. Nor’s first Burden was at the ability to hear the thoughts of plants and animals which I found an especially interesting ability.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

While I did enjoy aspects of Vern’s character, I felt that she was a little over the top. She’s kind of what I refer to as a “Snidely Whiplash villain” in which there are no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

She said herself once during the book that she didn’t need money as she could conjure whatever she wanted. So I was a bit unclear as to the purpose of her publishing the book — to allow readers to obtain whatever they desired.

I didn’t really get the motivation for Vern to become a famous author and make scads of money if money wasn’t what she was after. I always like my villains to have a strong reason for what they do — not just be evil for the sake of being evil. So in this way, Vern was a bit one dimensional as there was no real motivation behind her actions.

Though I felt that the author did an excellent job with most of the characters, I also felt the Reed, Nor’s love interest, was a little bland and could also have used a bit more development.

Additionally, I was confused as to why Nor didn’t confide in her grandmother about her extra abilities. The reasoning why she hid her powers from her family was unclear to me, especially when she could have been assisting Judd all along with healing the people in the community. Likewise, Judd may have been able to help Nor understand and control her new abilities.

The ending felt a little bit unsatisfying for me. Well, it wasn’t the ending actually; it was the epilogue. Though the plot does completely wrap up at the end — that is to say, it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger — the resulting situation for our main characters as put forth in the epilogue was not all that desirable.

There wasn’t really a “happily ever after” here, as our characters are under heavy suspicion, scrutiny and perhaps even danger by society as the book’s end. The epilogue could pave the way for a sequel I suppose, but overall, I wasn’t a fan.

FINAL VERDICT

Overall, this was an enjoyable story with an engaging storyline and rich, interesting characters. It was a tad slow-paced at first but really picked up steam toward the last quarter of the book.

That being said, I still found it an enchanting story, and the writing was evocative and lyrical with rich, lush prose that was at times haunting.

Be warned, however, that the book does explore some dark themes such as parental abandonment, self-harm, and abuse which may be triggers for some people.

Though it was darker then I had initially expected, I felt that Walton has crafted a wonderfully spooky story with a great deal of atmosphere and a thrilling sequence of events leading to an explosive climax. This is a well-told tale riveting tale with an intriguing magic system, and I’m glad I read it. I give it 4 stars.

You can check out The Price Guide for the Occult here at Amazon or at The Book Depository.

Review of The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

May 19, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

This is the second novel written entirely in free verse that I’ve read, the first being A Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. I’ve really warmed up to this succinct type of format and would definitely read more of this type of novel. It’s such a unique way to tell a story and the more I’m exposed to this type of storytelling, the more it resonates with me. And this is coming from someone who is not a fan of poetry.

The Story

While reading this, I felt as though I were reading an autobiography, but all in verse.

The book follows Xiomara Batista, a teenage Dominican girl, who has a twin brother. It’s interesting to note that her name — Xiomara — literally means “one who is ready for war” and this name fits her perfectly. Because of her mature and shapely body, is the target of sexual harassment from her peers – consisting of endless groping, objectification and lewd comments — causing her to continually defend herself with harsh words and her fists. She’s not one who hesitates in doing battle when necessary.

This quote from the book sums the harassment she had to experience nicely:

”I am the baby fat that settled into D-cups and swinging hips so that the boys who called me a whale in middle school now ask me to send them pictures of myself in a thong.”

So in this way, there is a good amount of body shaming and body guilt in this story, not only by the boys at school but also by her mother.

She also often has to defend her brother, Xavier, a shy meek boy who is also bullied at school. I love how Xiomara never refers to her brother by name, but only as “Twin” because, according to her, she is the only one who can call her that.

Her mother is ultra-religious to the point of being extreme, and from the story, it seems that her entire world revolves around her religion. There is no middle of the road with her — everything is black and white, and not to be questioned.

Xiomara, however, questions her religion but keeps her questioning to herself, fearing her mother’s wrath. It’s worth mentioning that the manner in which her mother force feeds Xiomara her religious beliefs borders on abuse and she uses her religion to harm both Xiomara and her brother emotionally.

Another secret that Xiomara has kept from her mother is her poetry — notebook after notebook worth, in which she pours all of her frustrations, her hopes, her dreams and her doubts. It’s through her poetry that she find freedom — the freedom to breathe in her otherwise constrictive, suffocating world.

There is also a boy named Aman that Xiomara has been seeing. It’s worth mentioning that dating of any kind is a huge no-no and her mother expressly forbids it until she’s in college. Her mother has a very low opinion of men in general for which we learn the reason as the story progresses.

So her English teacher invites and urges Xiomara to join her school’s slam poetry club which she wants to do more than anything, but she knows that this is something her mother would never agree to and would no doubt severely punish her if she found out about it.

But regardless of her fear, Xiomara joins the club and skips her Confirmation classes to do so.

And it’s through this club that Xiomara experiences a who new level of freedom. But the question is: how long can she keep it up without her mother finding out?

Of course, Xiomara is unable to hide who she really is indefinitely, and it’s no surprise that it all coalesces into a gigantic explosion.

WHAT I LIKED

First off, I loved Xiomara’s teacher. She really struck a chord with me because I had a similar teacher when I was in high school who encouraged me to pursue writing. I even had an extra assignment to keep a writing journal that I had to turn in every week. I can’t underestimate the importance of teachers like this, who encourage you when other’s don’t. So it’s because of this teacher that Xiomara dared to take that frightening first step.

The story is told from Xiomara’s perspective, so we get a peek at what’s really going on in her head. Though to the world she shows only her tough exterior, we see a confused and vulnerable girl instead with at times raging emotions as she pours her heart into her poetry.

I found Xiomara’s character so relatable even if you don’t necessarily come from a home with strict, religious parents because that sense of not belonging or insecurity are feelings that we’ve all experienced at one time or another.

I especially liked the strength and conviction she exhibited even when faced with what seemed like insurmountable obstacles, such as her mother forcing her to obey the laws of the church or the blatant sexism and harassment she encountered at school.

So though her writing, we see Xiomara’s views on body image/body shaming, religion, sexuality, family, womanhood, sexism, and abuse, all very intense but important topics.

I also loved how via her inner strength, she moves past her mother’s rules and abuse as she begins to explore her sexuality and learns to understand that her feelings toward Aman are not wrong, wicked, evil or sinful.

This story is a phenomenal exploration of a young girl who, though constantly told that she’s not feminine enough, devout enough, or good enough, moves past these judgments to a place of pride at who she is — an admirable positive message to any young person who may face similar judgements in their lives.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

I’m hard-pressed to come up with anything I didn’t like about this novel. I would have loved to have learned more about “Twin” and about his and Xiomara’s relationship. Because the story is recounted through Xiomara’s singular perspective, the other characters weren’t entirely as developed as they could have been. I would have enjoyed learning more about her mother’s past and what events brought her to the religious extremism. This was touched on a bit in the novel, but more detail would have been welcome.

My one real niggle with the book was in Xavier’s portrayal. He’s gay and is portrayed as timid, shy and unable/unwilling to fight his own battles. In fact, his sister has to step in and fight his battles for him repeatedly. These kinds of stereotypes really bother me in stories — where the gay person is portrayed as weak and emasculated. Sure, I do understand that this was used as a plot device to illustrate Xiomara’s aggressive nature. But I wish the author could have done so in a different way, without resorting to negative gay stereotypes.

FINAL VERDICT

I was utterly blown away by this book so much so that I devoured it in one day. This is a powerful, revelatory and sometimes raw coming of age story with a courageous and admirable main character.

Child abuse is a subject that I especially struggle with, so I found parts of this difficult to read, similar to my experience with The Dangerous Art of Blending In, another book I read recently.

But though The Poet X is heartbreaking and raw in places, it is ultimately hopeful and positive, as compromise is reached. I wish I had read this book when I was a teen.

In summary, this is a touching and emotional story of survival and of triumphing to become one’s authentic self, and I recommend it, even if you’re not one who typically goes for poetry. As I said, I’m not a poetry person, but this book blew me away. I loved it and gave it 4 stars.

You can check out The Poet X here at Amazon or at The Book Depository

Review of The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

May 16, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Miseducation of cameron post book cover The Miseducation of Cameron Post was on quite a few banned books list so it immediately attracted my attention (I love me some banned books!).

This story takes place in the early 1990’s follows a young lesbian teen named Cameron Post whose parents are suddenly killed in a car crash. As it turns out, Cameron, who was 12 years old at the time, had been kissing a girl — her friend Irene— hours before her parent’s death. So she ending up linking these two events in her mind creating some major guilt and in her preadolescent mind, wonders whether the death of her parents just might be God’s way of punishing her for her forbidden kiss.

And all this takes place right off the bat in the story.

So Cam is then sent off to live with her grandmother and her ultra-conservative and ultra-religious Aunt Ruth in Miles City, Montana. As Cameron steps into her teenage years, she comes to accept that she is a lesbian and makes another gay friend (ahem…a friend with benefits), Lindsey who teaches her the “gay” ropes and who lovingly refers to Cam as a baby dyke, which always gave me a chuckle

So I thought this was going to be sort of a coming-of-age tale of a young lesbian girl figuring out who she is.

But then the story took quite a surprising and disturbing turn — Cameron is outed to her Auth Ruth, and as a result, things don’t end up too well for our heroine, as Aunt Ruth takes drastic action, intent on “fixing” her niece. She sends to her God’s Promise church camp, one of those “pray away the gay” compounds.

And our story gets quite interesting from there.

WHAT I LIKED

I loved the character of Cameron as she was quite the firecracker. One author’s blurb on the back of the book said “If Holden Caulfield had been a gay girl from Montana, this is the story he might have told” — and I definitely have to agree, given that I just read Catcher in the Rye and Holden is still fresh in my mind.

Like Holden, Cameron was so realistically portrayed and she felt so real to me that she almost jumped off the page as I read about her adventures…and misadventures.

So though she did have somewhat of a strong ego and independent streak, it was these qualities which allowed her to reject the judgment of those authority figures in her life and maintain her self-esteem through it all.

This was especially true when she realizes that often, the people who are supposedly in charge really don’t have a clue about what they’re doing and are just winging it as they go along. That’s pretty much adulthood in a nutshell.

Now while Cameron certainly can be snarky at times, she’s also intelligent, strong, surprisingly adaptable and brave, and she’s able to maneuver through any shit storm that comes her way.

There really is so much to like about this story. I loved the vivid, detailed descriptions and the author brought the location to life. The storyline was also gripping with wonderfully snappy dialog and unique characters that were not clichés or cardboard cutouts, with all of this leading to a marvelously done story.

And speaking of the characters, I also enjoyed the varied cast of secondary characters, most of which were nicely developed and each relevant in their own way to the plot.

Now to the author’s credit, she doesn’t portray the Christians in this story has mean-spirited hateful bigots. In fact, there weren’t any real villains in the story per se. The counselors like Rick and Lydia, and even Cameron’s Aunt Ruth, all felt that they were doing the right thing and believed that what they were doing was in Cameron’s ultimate best interest (though I have to say that I despised Aunt Ruth).

Still, in general, I have a difficult time reading stories about these ”gay conversion therapy” camps whose goal it was to cure teen girls and boys of homosexuality. Thankfully, this type of therapy seen these days as a form of child abuse and these types of institutions are on the decline, at least to my understanding.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

I felt that the book was a little on the long side. I remember thinking a couple of times, “this is really dragging” so in this way, it could have used a little snipping here and there.

I also was not a fan of the ending. You know, if you’re one of those folks who likes things nicely tied up at the end, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. In fact, I found the ending rather abrupt. It’s not that it ended on a cliffhanger or anything – there just didn’t seem to be a whole lot of resolution at the story’s finale.

For instance, I would have loved to find out how Cam got on about six months down the road. I also would have loved to see how Cam’s future relationship with Ruth, her Grandma, or even Coley developed. I think a nice little Epilogue of 20 pages or so would have been lovely, maybe with a little glimpse into Cam’s future. I admit that I’m somewhat of a closure junkie so a little more resolution would have been nice.

I should also mention that though this is classified as a Young Adult novel, there is drinking, drug use, shoplifting, and blatant sexual situations, elements which some people might not like to see in their YA books.

FINAL VERDICT

This book was quite an emotional roller coaster ride and there are some dark moments in the story that are challenging to get through.

Your heart can’t help but break for Cam as she struggled to make the best out of a bad situation — and then there’s Mark’s story, which is also quite disturbing and heart-wrenching.

That being said, this isn’t a fluffy YA book at all; rather, it deals with some serious topics such as betrayal, love, loss, self-acceptance, religion and sexual confusion. I don’t mean to imply that this is a grim story because it’s not — it definitely has its fun, light and humorous elements as well.

In summary, I absolutely loved this story, and while it was heartbreaking in places, it was also a beautiful coming-of-age story with a riveting plot, a strong narrative and compelling, well-fleshed out characters, especially Cameron, whom I bonded with right from the get-go. I found the courage and adaptability Cam shows throughout the novel to be praiseworthy and impressive.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post was an amazing book, and I’m so glad that it crossed my path, though it did leave me wanting more at the end of it all. I ended up giving this novel 4 stars.

You can check out the book here at Amazon or at The Book Depository.