When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Summary from Goodreads:
A laugh-out-loud, heartfelt YA romantic comedy, told in alternating perspectives, about two Indian-American teens whose parents have arranged for them to be married.

Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.

The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

I first heard about When Dimple Met Rishi months ago when Preeti Chhibber started talking about an upcoming YA romance novel about two Indian kids at a computer coding camp whose parents have decided to play matchmaker.  That sounded a) adorable as all get-out and b) yaaaas, #ownvoices book about two nerdy kids.  Yes, do want, kthanks.

Would you be surprised if I said that basically anyone who walks into our teen section at the store gets this book handed to them?  You shouldn't be.

Because When Dimple Met Rishi is the most adorable, a-dork-able romance I've read in a long time. There's comics, coding, cosplay, generalized nerdery, and Bollywood. Dimple and Rishi are such great characters who are very smart but also have a lot of life experience to live through, too.  Dimple is extremely angry at her parents for this matchmaking scheme (particularly her mom, since her mom's sole purpose in life seems to get Dimple to be more girly and snag an Ideal Indian Husband); she doesn't have time for a relationship, she's going to focus on her career to develop great apps and software to help people.  Rishi, who is of a more traditional mindset, is determined to be a successful engineer so that he can take care of his parents later on, even if that means depriving himself of a creative outlet that he loves.  I loved the secondary characters of Dimple's roommate Celia and Rishi's brother Ashish. But in and around the central romance plot, there are some really sobering scenes with the local rich douche-bros and some casual racism and sexism; Menon uses these really tough scenes to highlight how hard Dimple has worked and how people like to pigeon-hole brown kids. I loved it - such a good book.

If this book does not make you grin with delight there is no hope for you. Definitely a comp for fans of Fangirl, given the characters' are edging out of teenage years and into adulthood.

(Also, please make this into a movie? It would be the cutest.)

Dear FTC: I received a digital galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale

Summary from Goodreads:
WHO RUNS THE WORLD? SQUIRRELS! Fourteen-year-old Doreen Green moved from sunny California to the suburbs of New Jersey. She must start at a new school, make new friends, and continue to hide her tail. Yep, Doreen has the powers of . . . a squirrel! After failing at several attempts to find her new BFF, Doreen feels lonely and trapped, liked a caged animal. Then one day Doreen uses her extraordinary powers to stop a group of troublemakers from causing mischief in the neighborhood, and her whole life changes. Everyone at school is talking about it! Doreen contemplates becoming a full-fledged Super Hero. And thus, Squirrel Girl is born! She saves cats from trees, keeps the sidewalks clean, and dissuades vandalism. All is well until a real-life Super Villain steps out of the shadows and declares Squirrel Girl his archenemy. Can Doreen balance being a teenager and a Super Hero? Or will she go . . . NUTS?

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is one of my favorite ongoing Marvel Comics series.  A human girl, with a squirrel tail, teeth, proportional speed and strength, and the ability to reason with super-villains (she convinced Galactus to not eat the Earth without throwing a punch).  I was unbelievably excited when I heard that Shannon and Dean Hale had been tapped to write a Squirrel Girl middle-grade novel.  (I got a galley at BEA and got it signed plus I got squirrel ears - bonus! Go nuts!)

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World starts a few years before the opening of the current SG comics run.  Fourteen-year-old Doreen's dad has accepted a new job and the family has moved from California to the New Jersey 'burbs.  Doreen is going to start at a new school, try and make some (human) friends, and keep her bushy squirrel tail hidden in her pants (it gives her a bodacious badonk).  That's all easier said than done.  Her neighborhood is filled with strange LARPers and roaming angry dogs, someone is trapping local squirrels in lethal traps, and this "friends" thing isn't coming along as fast as Doreen hoped (The Somebodies are the mean kids in any school anywhere).  When Doreen puts the fear of the Jersey Devil into a pack of local hoodlums, she accidentally becomes a superhero: Squirrel Girl!  Who has squirrel friends, like Tippy-Toe!  And rescues babies!  And winds up in a fight for her neighborhood with the newest super-villain menace: the Micro-Manager!

The Hales captured Squirrel Girl's voice from the comics perfectly (and the footnotes!). They've given us a superhero novel that is unbelievably funny with great heart.  The narration rotates between Doreen, Tippy-Toe (who has an amazing Jersey Squirrel dialect), and Ana Sophia, Doreen's new friend who is a computer genius and is obsessed with socks and Thor (possibly in that order).  There are several text exchange chapters between Doreen and members of the Avengers that are so funny they should be illegal.  The voices were EXACTLY RIGHT and I dare you not to hear the MCU actors' voices for Black Widow, Tony Stark, and Rocket Racoon when reading those chapters (I almost peed my pants I laughed so hard). Easter Eggs abound for Marvel fans. Go nuts!

Even though Squirrel Meets World is aimed at the middle-grade or teen crowd, the book does not condescend or talk down to its audience.  It's a bit like the original Muppets movies - there's something for everyone.  Grown-up fans of SG should enjoy this book, too!

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World is out TODAY wherever books are sold.

Dear FTC: I have a signed galley.  Also, I *high-fived* Dean Hale after we talked about which issue of SG is the best, so there's that.

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Summary from Goodreads:
SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

Ten is a very middle-of-the-road book, in my opinion. If And Then There Were None weren't one of my favorite books, and a masterpiece, and one I hadn't re-read very recently, I probably would have liked this better. I was mostly right about the murderer, no spoilers, because the McNeil's book is structured off of Christie's.  This also felt over-written.  Example: "'What is going on?' Her voice cracked.  She was tense."  At least one of those sentences is unnecessary.

But the plot just zips along. If you haven't read the ultimate locked-room mystery and you want a page-turner-y book that's a mash-up of I Know What You Did Last Summer+Scream+And Then There Were None then go for it.

Read for the Teen Book Group at my bookstore.

Dear FTC: I borrowed this from the library via Overdrive.

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson (The Gold Seer Trilogy #1)

Summary from Goodreads:
The first book in a new trilogy from acclaimed New York Times-bestselling author Rae Carson. A young woman with the magical ability to sense the presence of gold must flee her home, taking her on a sweeping and dangerous journey across Gold Rush–era America. Walk on Earth a Stranger begins an epic saga from one of the finest writers of young adult literature.

Lee Westfall has a secret. She can sense the presence of gold in the world around her. Veins deep beneath the earth, pebbles in the river, nuggets dug up from the forest floor. The buzz of gold means warmth and life and home—until everything is ripped away by a man who wants to control her. Left with nothing, Lee disguises herself as a boy and takes to the trail across the country. Gold was discovered in California, and where else could such a magical girl find herself, find safety?

Rae Carson, author of the acclaimed Girl of Fire and Thorns series, dazzles with the first book in the Gold Seer Trilogy, introducing a strong heroine, a perilous road, a fantastical twist, and a slow-burning romance, as only she can.

YA series are the worst series to start when only partially finished.  The best ones leave you salivating for more and the first book in Rae Carson's new trilogy, The Gold Seer, is no exception.

So...hands up, who played Oregon Trail on a PC in the 1990s, 8-bit graphics and all?  And died, a lot?  Seriously, I never ONCE made it to Oregon. I always caught cholera or got bit by a rattlesnake or the oxen died or I ran out of water....clearly, I would never survive in IRL wilderness let alone a 19th century wagon train.

The heroine of Walk on Earth a Stranger, Leah, must disguise herself as Lee-the-boy to escape her nefarious uncle (not a spoiler) and join a wagon train headed to Gold Rush-era California.  With her best friend, Jefferson McCauley, of course.  Leah must also protect her gold-sensing ability - she's like a dowser but instead of divining water, she can divine specks of gold dust.  The route from her small town in Georgia to the gold fields of California is hard and dangerous.  There are thieves (maybe one of them was sent to find her), disease, starvation, bad water, racist jerks, and a Micawber of-sorts but far less good-hearted than the real Micawber (those of you who've read Dickens's David Copperfield, I'll let you work that one out).  But Lee grows from a fifteen-year-old girl running for her life into a competent, strong woman through her journey.

Walk on Earth a Stranger is a change from Carson's previous trilogy, Girl of Fire and Thorns.  Those books were straight-up fantasy based around the premise of god-chosen individuals in a medieval Spanish-like setting who are expected to perform miracles; the heroine, Elisa, must save her adopted country from usurping dictators and balance the flow of magic and religion between two races and religions.  Walk on Earth a Stranger could remain a solid historical fiction series with the exception of Lee's gold-divining ability.  The historical research is A-plus without bashing the reader over the head with obvious details.  The secondary characters are memorable and diverse.  Carson allows real events like menstruation and childbirth to happen in real time as perfectly normal things (this is important - real girls get periods and real women worried about dying in childbirth so the fact that these are presented as issues one might run into while disguised as a boy or travelling as a woman in a wagon train to California is a way to firmly root characters in reality.  Side note: Lee isn't the pregnant one, before y'all start freaking out).

I loved the heck out of this book.  Walk on Earth a Stranger is well-plotted, perfectly paced to keep you reading, and formed around a kick-ass young woman who learns to be an adult in one of the harshest environments imaginable.  This first book in the Gold Seer Trilogy wraps up nicely, but I really hope we don't have long to wait for the second and then the third.

Walk on Earth a Stranger is available today, September 22, 2015, wherever books are sold.

Dear FTC: I received a DRC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

Fire and Thorns Trilogy

Summary from Goodreads:
Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.
Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do.

I decided to wait and read Rae Carson's Fire and Thorns trilogy until after the last book had come out.  I'm glad I did because these read very, very fast.  Now, this is a Chosen One concept.  Elisa has been blessed by God and chosen as a Bearer - a blue jewel appeared in her navel when she was a baby, marking her for service.  The issue, as evidenced in The Girl of Fire and Thorns, is that Elisa has no idea what she is supposed to do as a Bearer.  She's been protected and coccooned her entire life but she has no special talent (beyond reading), no particular beauty (she's overweight, darker/olive complected, and eats her feelings), and isn't even the heir to her father's kingdom (her beautiful, fair-skinned, blonde sister will inherit).  So Elisa is married off at sixteen to the ruler of the neighboring kingdom, Alejandro, who is older by a decade or more and widowed with a young son.

And this is where things get strange.  Elisa asks Alejandro not to consummate their marriage and he agrees.  The party is attacked on the way to Orovalle and one of Elisa's trusted confidantes dies.  When they arrive in Orovalle, Alejandro prefers to hide his marriage and instead introduces Elisa as a special guest.  Alejandro has a mistress (no surprise there).  Then Elisa gets kidnapped....and that's just The Girl of Fire and Thorns. 

This proves to be Elisa's opportunity for growth.  She must learn to be self-sufficient, to not feel sorry for herself for being clueless about her gift, to learn the real history of the bearers, and to truly understand the political mess that is the conflict between Orovalle and Invierne.  Elisa learns to lead and it sets the tone for the rest of the series.  The Crown of Embers picks up as Elisa is trying to put her kingdom back together; The Bitter Kingdom delves even further into the history of conflict with Invierne as traitors undermine Elisa's efforts to keep her loved ones safe.

Carson does a lot of interesting things with this series.  It borrows off of the medieval history of Spain, which is a different source than a lot of the northern European sources, and also off some of the early Catholic mysticism.  If you speak Spanish or Latin, you'll get a lot of the phrases Carson uses in places.  The religious angle is really interesting and brings up a lot of questions of faith and trust.  Even though this is a YA series, and has a really strong romance element, Carson handles Elisa's three attachments - Alejandro, Humberto, Hector - without sticking anyone in a romantic triangle (pentagon?).  When it is clear where Elisa's heart lies, Carson goes one step further by having her teenage character make a really smart choice and proactively choose to use birth control.  Even though the couple doesn't actually have sex until almost at the end of book three when they are more-or-less married (which isn't really a spoiler because, come on, true love did have to win out at the end) it was really nice to see a YA character make a smart choice with both heart and head.

This is a fun, well-built fantasy world and a series with great plotting.  A definite recommend for readers looking for solid fantasy elements and a strong female character/narrator.

The Phantom Tollbooth

Summary from Goodreads:
Milo mopes in black ink sketches, until he assembles a tollbooth and drives through. He jumps to the island of Conclusions. But brothers King Azaz of Dictionopolis and the Mathemagician of Digitopolis war over words and numbers. Joined by ticking watchdog Tock and adult-size Humbug, Milo rescues the Princesses of Rhyme and Reason, and learns to enjoy life.

Poor Milo, stuck in the Dolldrums. I remember having this read to me in grade school yet never read a copy on my own. So I decided to re-read it during the Readathon.

Just as wonderful as I remembered. And far more complicated and intricate in vocabulary and plot (how did this not win a Newbery Medal?). Either I wasn't paying attention or it's the perfect read-aloud.  It was the perfect Readathon read.  My edition had a lovely preface by Maurice Sendak, which seemed especially timely.

FTC: I read a strip of this book that I got through work.

Fangirl

Summary from Goodreads:
In Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.  Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

If Fangirl had existed when I was a HS senior I would have ate it up with a spoon and asked for more.  It is such a great YA/coming of age story.

I was a bit like Cather when I started undergrad - socially quiet, maybe a little unsure of who I was but definitely sure that I was smart and talented, and I went to a big state university.  My first serious relationships were in undergrad as well as my first major crises of confidence.  Granted, not all within my freshman year as happens to Cath.

I really liked how Rowell contrasted Cath's outgoing immersion in the Simon Snow fanbase with her tentative interactions among the student body in the real world.  Add to that Cath's support - her twin Wren - has decided that she no longer wants to do the "twin thing" and not only changes her social group but also her appearance.  Rowell allows Cath to make mistakes as she goes and to learn from them.  And Cath slowly learns that she is strong enough to take life on her own terms.  This leads me to wonder why the "New Adult" category is so narrowly defined because Cather's story is definitely one in which a new adult learns to be an adult.

Now, mixed in with all this are snippets of Simon Snow novels - a Harry Potter stand-in - and Simon Snow fanfic as written by Cather.  All of it is great fun.

Fortunately, the Milk

Summary from Goodreads:
"I bought the milk," said my father. "I walked out of the corner shop, and heard a noise like this: T h u m m t h u m m. I looked up and saw a huge silver disc hovering in the air above Marshall Road."
"Hullo," I said to myself. "That's not something you see every day. And then something odd happened."

Find out just how odd things get in this hilarious story of time travel and breakfast cereal, expertly told by Newbery Medalist and bestselling author Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Skottie Young.

Neil Gaiman, just to top the amazing story success of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, also put out a chapter book this year.  It tells the story of a dad who returns from a milk run to the corner store, is gone far longer than intended, and returns with a wild tale of alien abduction and dinosaurs....but he never forgot the milk.

I read this while covering breaks at the store and it had me laughing out loud - it's a chapter book, maybe 110 pages long and it flies along.  Just the kids' reactions to the tall tale and how it just. keeps. going.  Apparently the UK edition had different illustrations (which some reviewers liked better) but I thought these were just fine.  Another ace-in-the-hole from Neil Gaiman's brain!

The Giver

Summary from Goodreads:
The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life Assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. Lois Lowry has written three companion novels to The Giver, including Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son.

Now, I am 99.99% certain that I read The Giver in the nineties.  I would have been in ninth/tenth grade when it came out and although that's a bit older than the intended audience, I remembered so much about the book I'm sure I read it.

I chose this to read during my "real-live human reading banned books" stint in the booth at the Coralville Public Library.  I had intended to read Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic because I thought we'd be reading aloud but since we were reading to ourselves (shame) I switched to The Giver.

Such a beautifully written, heart-wrenching book.  I think it's a bit underserved by being labelled a "children's" book because all adults should read it.  Amazing commentary on conformity, oppression, and euthanasia.  I'll definitely have to go on and read the other three books - I bought them all because of the gorgeous cover designs!

Looking for Alaska

Summary from Goodreads:
Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same.

Guess what, peoples...teenagers have been known to experiment with sex, drugs, and cigarettes.  Including upper-middle-class private school teenagers like those depicted in John Green's Looking for Alaska.  We visit the school through Miles's eyes and he isn't a cool, sophisticated kid - he's a nerdy, naive, inexperienced teenage boy who is obsessed with deceased poets and the last words uttered by famous people.  It's pretty much a given that he'd fall for the manic-pixie-dreamgirl of the book, Alaska.  However, things don't quite work out as planned.  Alaska is self-destructive as all hell, which is all you need to know.  A really well-constructed book; it didn't have the emotional gut-punch that The Fault in Our Stars did (which is good, because I don't know if I could handle that much crying over a book so soon).

I picked this up for Banned Books Week - people like to harsh on the "adult" themes but, hey guess what, teenagers will be teenagers and John Green assumes that they are smart people as opposed to living in a padded room or something.

Smile/Drama

Raina Telgemeier's graphic novels are all the rage in the middle-grade section so I decided to give them a read.

Summary from Goodreads:
FAMILY, FRIENDS, BOYS...DENTAL DRAMA?! A true story

Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girls Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached(!). And on top of all that, there's still more to deal with: a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly. Raina's story takes us from middle school to high school, where she discovers her artistic voice, finds out what true friendship really means, and where she can finally...smile.

Reading Smile I am once again reminded that I had it really easy tooth-wise growing up.  I didn't need braces (I've got a few bottom teeth that are a bit crooked but they don't show) and I didn't need any oral surgery until my wisdom teeth had to come out after high school graduation (and that was an unfun adventure, let me tell you). Although I was lucky enough to avoid the hell that is the orthodontist's office, I did got through all those middle-school/adolescent problems that crop up in Raina's memoir: bad skin, mean friends, crushes on boys, bratty siblings, finding one's place in the grand scheme. This is really well-written and illustrated. I completely understand why kids gravitate toward this book.  (Aside: Raina and I have to be the same age because I remember the SF earthquake happened when I was in middle school - that was ALL THE NEWS that month - and I had every skincare/hygiene/cosmetic product that pops up right down to the Epilady.)

Summary from Goodreads:
PLACES, EVERYONE!

Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon Over Mississippi, she can't really sing. Instead she's the set designer for the drama department stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn't know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen. And when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier!

Drama is a bit of a different fish, particularly since it switches from memoir to fiction.  One thing I loved about this book is that it is very inclusive of LGBTQ and treats it in a very real-world way.  Since we see the action from Callie's perspective, we are there with her while she's processing the idea that a boy she has a crush on might be same-sex oriented (I went through a similar experience in high school).  As a fellow drama/crew kid I loved all the theatre stuff, but I didn't believe the level of quality/professionalism in the set design/tech to be middle school particularly because I didn't see many adults helping the kids.  A fun book.

Eleanor and Park

Summary from Goodreads:
Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Those of us who lived through high school know that the "cool" kids are also often the most cruel.  Reading Eleanor and Park brought all that back to me.  How the girls are really mean to Eleanor because she's a big girl, with wild red hair, and pretty much no money (of the three, in the suburban eighties probably the money thing is going to be the worst).  How the teachers really didn't do anything to help Eleanor (I was lucky in that teachers intervened when I was teased but no one is willing to help Eleanor here).  Her homelife is terrible (one of my Goodreads status updates mentions that I want to light her stepdad on fire - in retrospect, I might push her mom into the blaze, too).  Park is on the margin, too - he's half-Korean and the kids make no bones about slurs even if he is "accepted" within the school population.  As much as he doesn't want to jeopardize his tenuous standing, there's just something about Eleanor.  One of my favorite lines mentions that he thinks she looks like art, and art isn't neat, it's beautiful and messy.

Being set in 1986 there were some cultural brand drops that caught my eye - anyone remember Esprit bags? - and oh, the hunt for Walkman batteries.  I do wonder why Rowell chose to set the book in the eighties (which, considering the current YA population is starting to have birthdates firmly in the 21st century, puts the book into a historical fiction category - wow, did that just make me feel old) but Eleanor and Park's story is one that works when put into any cultural context.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland #1)

Summary from Goodreads:
Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn’t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday.

With exquisite illustrations by acclaimed artist Ana Juan, Fairyland lives up to the sensation it created when the author first posted it online. For readers of all ages who love the charm of Alice in Wonderland and the soul of The Golden Compass, here is a reading experience unto itself: unforgettable, and so very beautiful.

Catherynne Valente's new middle-grade series had me at the book name - The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - and reading it paid off beautifully.  A fabulous concept that is well thought-out and doesn't dumb things down simply because the intended audience is around middle school-age.  A fairy-tale series for the 21st century.

Also: WYVERNS!!  That is all.

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (The League of Princes #1)

Summary from Goodreads:
Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You’ve never heard of them, have you? These are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, respectively, and yet, thanks to those lousy bards who wrote the tales, you likely know them only as Prince Charming. But all of this is about to change.

Rejected by their princesses and cast out of their castles, the princes stumble upon an evil plot that could endanger each of their kingdoms. Now it’s up to them to triumph over their various shortcomings, take on trolls, bandits, dragons, witches, and other assorted terrors, and become the heroes no one ever thought they could be.

Christopher Healy’s Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom is a completely original take on the world of fairy tales, the truth about what happens after “happily ever after.” It’s a must-have for middle grade readers who enjoy their fantasy adventures mixed with the humor of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Witty black-and-white drawings by Todd Harris add to the fun.

Amidst all the worry that fairy tales are reductive and don't necessarily show strong women, there is the interesting point that most of the time the hero is just called Prince Charming.  The tale itself is known by the heroine's name, but the hero gets nary a name-check.  So Christopher Healy has imagined what it must be like for those teen-aged Prince Charmings.  Awkward, miscast, and occasionally mis-matched with their Princesses simply by twist of fate, they all find themselves on the road in an effort to untangle an evil plot and prove to their Princesses (and possibly, trade?) that they aren't any old flashes-in-the-pan.

I chowed this down during the readathon and loved it.  Definitely going to be a go-to book for kids and parents looking for recommendations.  Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Dear FTC: I won a prize pack of books during a previous readathon.  This ARC was one of them.

The Battle of the Labyrinth/The Last Olympian

So, having read 3/5 of the Percy Jackson series, I still had the last two books to read.  Thence, the Overdue Reads project.  I'll try not to spoil these two books too much if you haven't read them.

Poor Percy is starting a new school at the beginning of The Battle of the Labyrinth - as is usual.  His mom's new boyfriend, Paul, teaches there and he meets Rachel Elizabeth Dare again.  And fights off some empousai who've been sent to kill him - which is about normal, too.  Soon he's back at Camp Half-Blood, training with the new teacher Quintas, and finding an entrance to the Labyrinth.  Annabeth receives the Quest (and the prophecy, of which she withholds a part) and leads Percy, Grover, and Tyson into the Labyrinth to find its Creator, Daedalus, with the hope that he can help them stop Kronos.

The Labyrinth is such a great convention - it is constantly changing, dimensionally amibivalent, and full of traps.  Even if you back up and reverse direction it isn't the same.  It leads to a breeder of mythological animals (and an Augean stable), a death match, a long-lost god, and a reunion with Luke.  Or is it Kronos?

The Last Olympian starts as Percy and Beckendorf attempt to scuttle Luke/Kronos's ocean liner.  Well, it turns out there is a traitor among the Camp Half-Blood faction and Beckendorf pays the ultimate price when he sets off the bombs.  His death is yet another set-back for the Campers who are facing division in the ranks when Clarice and the Ares cabin withdraw their support in protest of a division of spoils.  Meanwhile, Annabeth and Percy's relationship is strained by his friendship with Rachel.  They must ovecome everything to mount a defense of Manhattan and Olympus.

There are such great overtones from The Iliad in the conclusion to the series: a conclusion to a long-standing war, a spat over war spoils leading to a sit-out of needed manpower, a doomed masquerade to lead that faction into battle, and a final fight between enemies.  The revelation of the "last" Olympian was so clever, I really didn't see it coming.  I also like the history and outcome of the Oracle because it all ties up in the outcome of the battle.

Riordan did a great job tying up the series.  I'll be going on to read the Heroes of Olympus books but not right away - I've got other Overdue Reads to finish.

The Fault in Our Stars

I've been struggling with how to review this book.  I mean no disrespect to John Green, but...

Dear John Green,
Fuck you.  Fuck you for creating two characters who just wormed themselves into my heart and then broke it wide open.  I bawled like a baby.
And I'll read everything you ever write.
Melissa

I mean, damn!  Teenagers aren't supposed to be this erudite and witty and funny and, and, waaaaahhh - that actually makes the end of the book even harder to read!  On the other hand, having known cancer kids from all walks of life (I volunteered with the first Dance Marathons at the University of Iowa), I don't find it so odd that Hazel and Gus are this sharp.  A kid who is largely isolated from his/her peers and given a great deal of alone time due to illness, as Hazel demonstrates on her shopping trip with a friend, is actually pretty likely to develop a crack wit and an advanced education.  There really isn't much to do in the hospital at times except homework and sharpening your wit on the medical staff.

And because I laughed as well as cried, here are two great quotes:

Osteosarcoma sometimes takes a limb to check you out.  Then, if it likes you, it takes the rest. (p18)

(Off topic, but: What a slut time is.  She screws everybody.) (p112)

Okay?  Okay.

Juliet Immortal: a mini-review

Stacey Jay has posited a unique re-examination of Shakespeare's immortal lovers: what if Shakespeare's story is a fake?  What if Romeo killed Juliet in a bid for immortality, Juliet being offered a chance to "live" by joining the other side in a war for soul mates?  In Jay's YA novel Juliet Immortal, Romeo and Juliet cross paths many times over the years until this most recent shift when everything goes awry.  Juliet falls for the boy she is supposed to save but Romeo has plans to reunite as well....

This wasn't a knock out of the park for me.   I LOVE the concept of this novel.   I really do - it's a fresh re-imagining of the Romeo and Juliet story with a paranormal twist, great layering with the school musical as a side-plot.   But Juliet/Ariel is really the only fully-formed character - Romeo's motivations weren't apparent to me, just an angsty, why-can't-I-get-what-I-want 400 year old teenager.  Even Ben doesn't have much depth, just a good-hearted guy with a pseudo-bad rep.  While I liked the ending it would have been stronger if there hadn't obviously been a set-up for the sequel (which I believe comes out in the fall, Romeo Redeemed or something like that.

Entwined

The title of Entwined is presented two ways - a sash dance in which the man tries to "entwine" his partner by the end of the music and in the malevolent magic that lies dormant in this retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses.

Dixon gives her retelling considerably greater background.  When the Queen dies at Christmas, giving birth to her twelfth daughter, grief splits apart the King and his daughters.  He is devastated and doesn't want to talk about his wife.  The girls are ordered into mourning for a year - no going outside, the draperies are closed to shut out the light, all the girls' dresses are dyed black, the clocks are stopped, and there is NO DANCING (dancing was an activity their mother loved, making her death doubly difficult).  When the King leaves for the war front, Princess Azalea (the eldest princess and heir) and her sisters feel abandoned. 

By happenstance, Azalea finds a magic passage (opened with Mother's silver handkerchief) leading to an enchanted crystal world minded by Keeper.  Keeper is handsome and genteel and allows the girls to come dance every night.  In an act of defiance, the girls become the Twelve Dancing Princesses of fairy tales.  It is their Secret, sworn in silver...until Keeper lets on his secret.  It is dark and deadly indeed.

The story has a very British-Victorian feel - Azalea is in some ways an analogue to Queen Victoria - although it is set in a make-believe European country.  There are lots of cute, funny bits involving the younger sisters and the suitors who come to court Azalea (balancing the darker aspects of grief and revenge).  While Azalea is talking to her (obvious, to all the readers) Prince Charming, she wants to give him toast - it's such an innocent component to "I think I love him" but it expresses far more care than teen love usually does.

 As a dancer, I loved the endless different social and group dances Azalea teaches the sisters - walzes, schottishes, reels, tarantellas - on and on across different countries and time periods.  It's a part of dance history that so often gets lost so it's nice to see the brief mentions throughout the book.

I had quite a fun time with this book and it was perfect for snuggling up as the nights grow cooler.

Jane

After Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte is one of my favorite writers.

Making Jane Eyre one of my favorite books.  Therefore, April Lindner's book Jane caught my eye. 

And then the author's note made me buy it.  She talked about modernizing Jane, making the story relevant by updating the various story elements to work in a modern setting.

Much of the updating works - Rochester is now the rock star Nico Rathburn (the modern equivalent of England's nineteenth-century flush-in-the-pocket landed gentry).  Jane is no longer the unwanted poor cousin but the underappreciated, misunderstood youngest child who just wants to be an artist (as opposed to a society wife or spoiled brat - John Reed needs almost no updating to fit into the 21st century) with almost no funds when her neglectful parents leave her only worthless stocks as her inheritance (the brother gets the house).  The conversion from governess to au pair is almost seamless as is the transition of Blanche Ingram - gold-digging socialite - to celebrity photographer (don't worry - most of the names change to more modern/better versions; she doesn't make anyone sport old-fashioned names like Fitzwilliam - I'm looking at you, Pride and Prejudice updates).  Lindner also gives Jane and Nico a physical relationship - a surprising but, oddly enough, not an unwelcome addition.

However, at a critical junction Lindner keeps a major plot twist from Jane Eyre and I'm going to do bit of spoiling.

So, if you don't want spoiling - for either book - stop now (although, honestly, if you've read Jane Eyre there's really nothing surprising in Jane).

Nico has a crazy wife in the attic.  That he keeps locked up there with an alcoholic caretaker who gets wasted on occasion.  And then the crazy wife is able to escape the attic and do very Bertha Antoinetta Mason Rochester-like things - like tear up Jane's wedding veil and set the house on fire.  AND THEN NO ONE COMMENTS THAT IT WAS TOTALLY ILLEGAL TO KEEP HIS OBVIOUSLY SCHIZOID WIFE IN THE ATTIC AND HE SHOULD BE ARRESTED FOR KIDNAPPING AND DEPENDENT ADULT ABUSE.  And then the Jane Eyre plot picks back up and ticks right along (conveniently avoiding the Dickens-like twist making the Rivers family long-lost cousins) to the end.  Thankfully, she avoids "Reader, I married him."

Seriously, WTF??  He is rich as sin and, even if he feels like it's his fault that the wife developed schizophrenia due to drug abuse, he could STILL divorce her and set up a trust to make sure she was well-cared for at a very private clinic, as opposed to an attic with a drunk (at least I think the caretaker had a problem...maybe I'm confused and the crazy lady was slipping the caretaker her drugs to knock her out...ANYWHO it wouldn't happen in a real mental health institution).  Because she is nuts enough to be committed for life by a court order.  This isn't the nineteenth-century where lunatic asylums were terrible, hellish places.  The decision to keep this plot twist pretty much ruined the book for me at this point particularly because the author had made such a point in her essay about modernizing.  If she hadn't said anything I probably wouldn't have minded so much (I would still have noticed, but I probably wouldn't have been so put out).