Review: The Namesake by Steven Parlato (ARC)

The Namesake by Steven Parlato
Merit Press, 256 pages
US Release Date: January 18, 2013
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher, for review - thank you Leyane and Merit!

While he may be the smartest boy at St. Sebatian's Academy, Evan has no idea why the father he's named for committed suicide. A searching story of a boy's too-early coming of age

The Namesake begins when Evan is asked to "write about what he knows" for college essays, by teachers sure that such a gifted artist will get a full scholarship. What Evan knows is not as much as what he doesn't know, however. He doesn't know why his father chose to hang himself on Easter morning while he and his mother were at church, and what the secrets of a small town can tell him about his father . . . and himself. Hoping to finally uncover the truth, Evan and his best friend, Alexis, dig into the town's past only to discover it's dark roots . . . and that some secrets are best kept hidden.
-------------------summary provided by the Publisher

Notable Quote

Sorrow is cumulative.

The Namesake was another one of those books that took me surprise - and I'm still in debates about if it was ultimately a good thing or not. I suppose I could have connected some of the dots underlying the summary, but I don't think I would be the only one not to put it together earlier.

I'm not going to say it outright, but the truth of what is going on...it was a tough subject to read about, simply because it's one of those things that you feel is never really real. It's on the news all the time (unfortunately), but that's all it is: news stories. They're so horrific and evil that your brain refuses to accept them as true, even though you know deep down they are. So to read about it was a bit...horrific, too. Right in the middle I started to wonder if I should really continue, but I'm glad I did.

Once I did figure out what happened to Evan's father (which was pretty early on), I actually became much more frustrated with Evan because he was so slow on the uptake. There were so many obvious moments after that, and I just wanted to shove Evan and tell him to get there faster. It was excruciating slogging through random dream sequences or weird hallucination-like daydreams just to get to the point, and I definitely skimmed some of those pages. Even though it's already a small page count, it felt too long for the plot. Though of course, do know that I read an ARC and I'm sure there are definite changes in the final version that more than likely alleviate this issue!

The story itself is rather gripping, especially once Evan discovers the journal and you're allowed to read the father's own words. The mystery is wrapped up fairly well, and though once it begins to take shape you immediately know, it's still pretty brilliant the way it's mapped out and the sequence of reveals. There was one little part to the storyline that I thought was a bit unnecessary, but it's thankfully a small portion - and the characters it brought about were so fantastic that I didn't mind it too much.

One of the best things about this novel were the secondary characters. Each of them were so clear and unique - especially Zio Joe and the Italian family - that I thoroughly enjoyed every time there were scenes with them. Alexis was a little over the top, but she balanced out Evan well and offered a great comic relief to very heavy issues. And even though I can't stand Father Fran...he's crafted well. Too well, because it makes me see red just to see his name again!

The tone of the novel is an interesting part for me - most of the time, I loved it. Evan's got this great defeatist humor that mixes really well with his curiosity and cynicism, and it paints a picture very well. But there are small moments where it didn't fit well with the content of the book, where it didn't quite fit with a scene or a feeling. And I know you can't shift tones in a book, but somehow I think a better balance could have been achieved. Still, a good 80% of the novel has a great take on the events and I found myself enjoying it.

I'm having a hard time wrapping up the review, mostly because I'm still a little lost how I feel about the whole book. There are certainly parts I really loved, ones that made it worthwhile to read this - I don't regret picking it up, and I do think there are a lot of appeals to it. But for me personally, there were so may tiny misses, too - and I can't ignore those, either.

2.5 Stars

Review: Struck by Jennifer Bosworth (ARC)

Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR, 384 Pages
Expected US Release Date: May 8, 2012
Format: ARC
Source: DAC ARC Tours (thank you!)
Challenge: Debut Author Challenge

Mia Price is a lightning addict. She's survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her.

Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.

Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn't who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.
-----------------------------------Goodreads summary

Notable Quote

This whole city is dangerous. The whole world is dangerous. You know what's really dangerous? Standing next to you, Mia, but I've done that my whole life, haven't I? I've always stood by you...even when a storm was coming.

Struck is unlike any other book I've ever read - which doesn't mean too much since I've read like 1% of all books ever, but still! It's action-packed, adventurous and tense all at once. It seemed quite clear to me that the author is also a screenwriter, as I felt the pacing of the novel was done really well. Normally that isn't something I pay attention to, but I felt like it was a very smooth ride through a sticky, potentially complex mix of people and groups.

Focusing on Mia Price, a girl who has a past of being struck my lightning and seems to feed off it, Struck tells the tale of 3 days. But not just any 3 days: it's been a little over a month since a devastating earthquake in Los Angeles that's destroyed and displaced most of the residents, and a Prophet has been speaking that another, even more destructive storm will come in 3 days.  It's almost a pre-Apocolyptic novel, except it's like...Apocolypse-is-coming-tomorrow-get-your-shit-together.

Obviously, knowing the storm is coming in 3 days creates incredibly tense situations, and my fear was right up there with Mia. I wanted her to protect her family, I wanted her to figure out what her role was in the entire story, everything was done with bated breathe. Jennifer Bosworth plays the reader well, bringing you high and low and increasing tension and quelling it just so.

I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but I had no idea just how much this book is about Cults. I've a weird relationship with Cults, in that I just don't know how I feel about them. They're cast in such a bad light, but then it's such a subjective thing about what's a cult and what isn't...I mean, I was at the library once and this woman would not stop calling Mormonism a Cult. And while I don't agree with that, she's not the first I know to believe it is. So when this book started showing the Prophet's Followers as believing they spoke the Word of God, and then the opposition of the Seekers who believed in the Spark...it kind of made me squirm. Just because I felt like it could be at touch political and religious, two topics that are incredibly difficult to tread.

That said, Jennifer Bosworth handled them pretty well. The concept of them and how they related and needed Mia in this inevitable End of the World was creative, and I really loved how it was obviously a Good vs. Evil battle -- but you couldn't be sure which side was what. I actually felt pretty conflicted as to who to believe; enough where I was kept guessing to the end.

One of the problems I had though was the general tone...there were a few times where I thought Mia's dry humor or sarcasm was ill-placed, as well as a few times where I thought the writing and thoughts were a bit cheesy and could use a good comic relief sentence. Don't get me wrong, most of the time I liked the little bits of humor - they were an unexpected laugh -- but sometimes it just felt inappropriate. It also seemed a few ideas or thoughts could be inferred, but the author decided to spell it out. Maybe there was a reason for it, maybe I'm just being nit-picky...but there were definitely times I got distracted and enough for me to notice.

I'm also unsure how I felt about the romance aspect. I don't want to spoil it for anybody, so I won't get into the details. I'll admit that it killed me the first times because the boy's name + description is an EXACT replica to the last boy I had a small heartbreak over, so it's still a bit of a tender issue. I honestly had to start switching the name in my head because it was bringing up a lot of feelings I thought were buried; which made me wonder if that was influencing how I felt about the romance. It felt like a story I'd read before, and truthfully, I never questioned how it would end up. Even when the plot seemed to change or felt like it made the relationship uncertain, I always knew how it would end. That part was predictable.

Despite a disappointing romance and distracting lines, Struck is a BOOMING, phenomenal debut novel, filled with CRACKLING tension and STRIKING action that deserves THUNDEROUS applause. (Ya like that? I had to do it.)  I hope you pick it up, because you'll get swept away, too.

PS. Is Struck a series? Or a stand alone? It could stand alone, but I definitely think there's room (and the set up) for a second one...I'd be interested to find out the futures of the characters!

4 Stars / 5

Review: There Is No Dog by Meg Rosoff

There Is No Dog by Meg Rosoff
Putnam Juvenile, 256 Pages
US Release Date: January 24, 2012
Challenge: Local Library Challenge

Meet your unforgettable protagonist: God, who, as it turns out, is a 19-year-old boy living in the present-day and sharing an apartment with his long-suffering fifty-something personal assistant. Unfortunately for the planet, God is lazy and, frankly, hopeless. He created all of the world's species in six days because he couldn't summon the energy to work for longer. He gets Africa and America mixed up. And his beleagured assistant has his work cut out for him when God creates a near-apolcalyptic flood, having fallen asleep without turning the bath off. There is No Dog is a darkly funny novel from one of our most delightfully unpredictable writers.
------------------------Goodreads summary

Notable Quote

Perhaps the way to proceed is to think of life on earth as a colossal joke, a creation of such immense stupidity that the only way to live is to laugh until you think your heart will break.

What a bizarre book. In the best way possible! But still bizarre. I hate to quote the blurbs on the back, but it really is this quirky, funny little read.

I absolutely loved the premise: God is actually a 19-year-old impulsive, bratty boy named Bob whose every emotion alters the state of Earth. Floods, earthquakes, beautiful weather, everything is a direct result to his feelings. (Isn't that terrifying?  What if your moods effected the weather??)  The story follows Bob when he falls in love with Human Lucy, and all the other god-like presences behind Bob that make it all work.

Has this book been banned? Because if it hasn't, I'm surprised, and pretty certain it will come. It questions God and the perceptions of God, which only makes sense that some places would ban it. I mean, if we can ban books that talk about burning books or Quidditch-playing wizards, I'm certain we can ban a book that views God as an arrogant, nymphomaniac prick, and Earth as a company-like gambling stake to be made.

There Is No Dog isn't meant to be some anti-Christian book though; in fact, it's almost an advocate for the belief in a higher being.  And I keep mentioning this religion thing like it's a religious book of some sort - it's really NOT. It's just a fun novel that happens to merge the perceptions of a religion with adolescence. Some parts were a bit out-there and confusing, and I was definitely not a fan of Bob; but overall I was laughing and enjoying all the antics, I felt sympathy for Eck (the odd penguin/anteater hybrid pet of Bob) that he was doomed, I really felt everyone's turmoil and questions.  Though it may not seem it, this is definitely a Young Adult book that lingers into the emotions of new love, figuring out who we are and who those are around us, and how it all works together to create our lives.

There's a lot of little sub-stories throughout this book; all of them weave together at points, but it is a lot to keep up with. But each one is unique and interesting, and I was entirely invested in all of it. I think Mr. B was my favourite, in his quiet, steadfast and hopeless way.

Warning, all: it's about to get weird here. Because I'm going to liken my reading this story to reading Kafka's The Castle. ("KAFKA?!" I know. Hear me out.)  I read The Castle for my high school senior final thesis, and like all of Kafka's work, it is rife with symbolism and weirdness and simplicity that's just a metaphor for complexity. And truthfully, I felt that way with this: it's a quirky read, it's funny and flowing--but I also felt like I could read into every character and event and make it something bigger.  Am I supposed to? I have no idea. But I could.  And I felt like it made this book all the better.

I'm not sure if this is for everyone. It's a bit weird to wrap your head around the concept of God not being the all-mighty-all-power-all-knowing benevolence, and even weirder to not quite like him at all. But I think everyone should give it a shot, because they'll probably find a little of their own faith in it.

4 Stars / 5

Review: Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith

Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith
Dutton, 296 Pages
US Release Date: April 28, 2011
Challenges: Completely Contemp Challenge (2011), Local Library Challenge

What's worse than getting dumped? Not even knowing if you've been dumped. Joy got no goodbye, and certainly no explanation when Zan - the love of her life and the only good thing about stifling, backward Haven, Utah - unceremoniously and unexpectedly left for college a year early. Joy needs closure almost as much as she needs Zan, so she heads for California, and Zan, riding shotgun beside Zan's former-best-friend Noah.
-----------------Goodreads summary

Notable Quote

There are already two other people there, girls in berets, but they just smile like it's cool, mainly smiling at Noah, I think, but I can't tell because my eyes are on Zan. I don't want him to see me, but I do want him to see me, and I want both those things so much and why doesn't he see me?

This book is summed up entirely in one word: cute. It's an adorable tale of a girl named Joy seeking closure when Zan, her boyfriend, suddenly gets his GED early and moves hundreds of miles away to attend college without even telling her goodbye.  She reflects on the relationship, trying to see when it became the "this" he had to get away from; and eventually she sets off with Zan's best friend Noah to visit Zan and get the answers she craves.

It's a swift read with an equal amount of short insightful snaps and lighthearted giggles. You learn easily how to hate Zan, and you question why she's really chasing after him -- although you also completely get Joy and what she's missing, too.  Noah is perfect, helping her along the way and being a strong, supportive friend at her side.

I have to mention that there is a bit of religion in the book; but nothing that's overtly or even overly preachy. I was a bit surprised to find out the Mormonism present, but it's handled well and I never, ever felt like I was reading propaganda. It was just another facet to the characters, and done in a way I appreciated. If every book handled religion this way, I wouldn't ever protest it in novels.

Emily Wing Smith captures the hurt of a snubbed first love and the struggle to come to terms with it perfectly, coming together in a quick, lighthearted read that makes you remember the pain and joy of understanding love and what it can do to you.

4 Stars / 5