Category Archives: Fiction

I don’t yet have Jennifer Mathieu’s name committed to my memory, so imagine my surprise when I finished my newest download from Netgalley called Afterward and posted my review on Goodreads only to realize I’ve read two others from her! So now, I must commit her name to memory as she’s turned out some lovely and touching stories. In finishing Afterward, I can say that the lasting feeling I have is akin to Oribiting Jupiter by Gary Schmidt. It’s this quiet recognition of a well-written story that sticks in your bones.

As Mathieu mentions in her afterword, this story doesn’t happen in real life very often, but it does happen and it’s worth writing about, especially when memorable characters are created and the the story unfolds as an homage to the courage it takes to survive but also to the self-care needed to move past difficult situations as Ethan and Caroline’s story attests to.

Memorable Character: Ethan without a doubt, as a boy who was taken as a pre-teen by a man who abused him and controlled him for years, is now back in the arms of his parents who tried to never give up hope that they’d find him again. He takes to meeting with a psychiatrist who provides him an avenue to explore what happened to him that includes bringing his his dog and also allowing Ethan to ask the tough questions: is he gay because he had to do that with Marty? Should he tell Dylan’s sister, Caroline, that he feels responsible for Dylan being kidnapped as well because he opened the door and “played the part”? How can he move on and go back to school? How much smothering should he take from his mother? There’s is a slow character development that endears readers to him from the very moment we learn who he is, that he has suffered abuse from a man who committed suicide when the cops finally found Ethan and Dylan. He’s open to a friendship with Dylan’s sister, who is trying to come to terms with Dylan’s kidnapping as well and befriends Ethan under the shared hobby of music. He wants everyone to feel comfortable, even when he was ripped away from his family for years before finally being rescued.

Memorable Scene: Each scene in the garage when Caroline rides up on her bike and starts a conversation with Ethan and subsequently meets him to “jam out”. It’s such an innocent way to begin their friendship. Caroline is curious about Ethan’s experiences and how she can use him to help her autistic brother deal with it as well. The alternating narratives help understand both Ethan and Caroline’s motivations creating a unique story.

Advised to give this to fans of Gary Schmidt’s Orbiting Jupiter and Jasmine Warga’s My Heart and Other Black Holes.

…that’s how I read this book: in one sitting, way past my bedtime, so be sure that your schedule is clear until morning when you crack open Never Ever by Sara Saedi. It was the combination of an easily-readable narrative, an imaginative setting, with a darkness that compliments both the romantic elements and relationships among the characters.

Memorable Character: Wylie, the main character who has discovered her father’s affair and is trying to keep some peace while her parents decide to divorce and her younger brother is a day away from jail because of an accident that she helped cause. She’s befriended (and a bit smitten) with Phinn, a boy at a party who gives her a flower that allows her to fly before he takes her and her two younger brothers to Minor Island, the island where none of the inhabitants ever grow up. It’s what happens on the island and how Wylie responds at each turn that create the darkness as she discovers her “Peter Pan” may have a darker side that turns this Peter Pan story into Lord of the Flies.

Memorable Scene: Close the beginning, it’s when Phinn decides to pull out the small pouch that looks like it has been woven out of reeds and presents her with a bundle of tiny blue flowers that he’s asking her to try “hoping we could have an adventure together”. Realistically unnerved and curious, Wylie immediately begins to walk away before Phinn eats one and demonstrates that their consumption allows the consumer to fly. (And the fairy tale begins…)

Memorable Quote: A scrawl on a wall and a poem recited on the island “Never forget to live life to the fullest. Do it for the troubled; do it for the lost. The days may feel shorter; the nights may feel long. But when we remember, our memories grow strong.” This was the Phinn-created mantra that ends up being the biggest (and darkest) twist to the plot.

This is absolutely one of the more enjoyable 2016 reads with the splashes of magical realism that’s got a choke-hold on me right now, but it’s the attention to family since Wylie is joined on the island by her two brothers Micah and Joshua and the interwoven details of her parents, and the lasting questions readers can pose to themselves– if you could stay on an island and never age, would you leave everything else behind?

Meredith Russo was recently interviewed by School Library Journal on diversity with her debut book If I Was Your Girl, which came at an awesome time as I’d just finished the book last week. Within the week, also making sure I returned it to the public library after booktalking it to a group of other librarians at a book club and adding multiple copies to our next order for the school library.

The premise is that Amanda is going to live with her father after a beating in a mall bathroom in the town where she currently lives with her mother. Thinking that Amanda can start fresh in a new place, the obstacles of truly being accepted by her father and then being a girl in a new school are enough to wreck her nerves. But, things are settling in well and Grant, a kind-hearted boy, has already taken an interest in her. And while she wants to tell Grant about her being born a boy, his insistence that he’s not interested in any “secret” puts Amanda at ease. For the first time, allowing herself to truly enjoy being herself, though she has told another girl she befriended at school.

It’s a strategically told story with a crisp voice that is neither too flowery nor too pointed. There is a comfort in Russo’s storytelling that allows for a bit of complacency before another traumatic event unfolds, sending chaos into Amanda’s life yet again. It’s the characters, from Amanda and Grant to her father that explore the emotions of a trans experience. I think it’s a cut above others in its categorization, serving a more rounded understanding of transitioning still feeling guarded, a necessary measure to protect oneself. It explores religion and homophobia, secret-keeping, and family.

It’s got a provocative title and cover that compliment each other, which is where I always start with a book. Then add to it an author’s note about Russo’s own experience and it’s a book needing to be on everyone’s shelf to read and then share widely.

After having just read and posted about Exit, Pursued by a Bear and now just finishing after an obsessive day of reading Dreamers Often Lie by Jacqueline West, I am elated by the resurgence of Shakespeare-inspired YA fiction.

For this story, there is no doubt that Shakespeare seeps from the pages from the title to the incorporation of a main character who acts: you’d be hard-pressed to find an actor who hasn’t played a character in one of his plays. Jaye is now in high school and playing Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream opposite her childhood friend, Pierce, who has been distant over the last few years, but is taking up acting in his senior year. Yet Jaye’s life has been rocked by a brain injury during a skiing accident with her mother and sister. Not only does she want to leave the hospital to get back to the play and her friends, she’s feigning good-health when instead she’s seeing and hearing Shakespeare characters including the bard himself, Hamlet, and Romeo. Romeo turns out to be the new kid in town and a love interest for Jaye, while also epitomizing the possible bad decisions that Jaye has continuously made and that had disappointed her father before his untimely death. Insert the love triangle as Pierce becomes overprotective of the healing Jaye.

There is much to discover within the pages, from lines from the plays to Jaye’s family dynamics, healing from a brain injury, and healthy decision-making. The writing and pacing engage readers from start to finish with a seamless incorporation of the hallucinated characters. So once readers tune in to Jaye’s new normal, the book is easy to follow. It’s not about mental illness and it’s not true magic, it’s simply her brain’s reaction to the trauma. And she certainly doesn’t want to admit it to anyone either.

With the amount of drama between the pages, it doesn’t have to be a “literary” teen who will enjoy it because it’s contemporary realism with a pinch of canon. But you better be ready to hear from them once they turn the final pages. It wouldn’t be true Shakespeare without it.

Having been afforded the opportunity through Netgalley to read Eric Devine’s newest title that will debut this fall, I’m hopeful that the tide is turning on GLBTQ titles: instead of it being the sole focus of the story with a weak storyline for the sake of having a GLBTQ character, newer fiction is going deeper. The stories are mysteries and fantasy and science fiction with characters that are GLBTQ. And that’s exactly what you get in Look Past.

Avery is used to sideways glances and cutting comments, but he is past it affecting him. He has positive relationships and kind friendships, but in the opening scene, Avery is in the woods, linked arm-in-arm with others from the community searching for his friend Mary. Mary is missing and while no one wants to think “presumed dead”, that’s exactly what happens when her body is discovered.

Now Avery’s mission is to solve the crime, especially now that he’s been pulled in and his love for Mary propel him to push through the animosity and hatred. He’s willing to put himself in harm’s way and this keeps us up at night.

Chills and thrills. Religion. Hopefulness? And we pause and hold our breath when Avery is patted down. Angered, frustrated. We know. They know. It’s moments like this that make Devine’s book thoughtful, rich, and empathetic. I can’t wait to share this widely– it is not a niche book, not by a long shot.