The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

This is a classic said to have a lot of crossover appeal, although it's published as Adult (and I think rightly so.) The main character is a teenager who is, albeit, dead. She was murdered, and she watches from heaven as the cops and her family struggle not only with their emotions, but to find the culprit as well.

If it sounds like a morbid read, you're kind of right. Susie Salmon just can't let go of her old life on Earth. She continuously watches her family as they age, and latches on to them, trying to experience life through their eyes.

I don't know how to fully form my opinion on this one. The premise is dark, twisted, and wickedly awesome. I'm just not sure how well it was delivered. For instance, Susie had very little qualms with her actual rape and murder, instead just mostly wishing she were alive again. But, I don't care if you're dead, you'd remember something that traumatic and have struggles over it. And I liked the way heaven was described in the book, but I thought they could have elaborated a lot more. It felt like the book was jumping around, and it didn't fully hold my interest. The writing was meh, the plotting was ick, and probably the only good thing about this was the actual idea.

And there was a very weird occurrence that didn't really match the book near the ending. It happened out of the blue, and was very WTF.

I think I'm being too harsh, because if someone asked me my opinion, I wouldn't say I disliked it completely. I'd say it was "okay". But did it deserve it's acclaim and status? In my opinion, no. Give that same idea to a thousand other authors I could name, and it would turn out better by twentyfold. But as a simple book, by itself & without acclaim, it was okay. I think I expected too much more out of it. And there go my expectations, ruining a book for me yet again. I need to stop believing praise so extremely.

Fairytales Gone Bad

Have you ever wondered what would happen if, instead of being heroic and just, Disney princesses were evil? I found this art here on Deviantart.

My personal favorite is Pocahontas. What's yours?

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

In Prentisstown, every man can hear every other mans' thoughts in a constant stream of Noise. They describe it best a couple pages into the book, where words are scribbled everywhere in different fonts and sizes and lengths. Very overwhelming, to say the least.

Todd is the last boy to reside in Prentisstown - see, in this town, once you reach the age of 13 (but actually 14 in our years), you become a man. He's the last boy because, well, you can't procreate when there aren't any women left. They all died after the Noise germ was released. But when Todd comes across a spot of silence - thought of as impossible in his town - he starts on a journey that questions everything he knows about his world.

I was iffy about this book at first, because the style of writing Patrick used is risky. I've seen it done before - when an author uses a different dialect in the text to reflect the character. But after a while, I got used to it (this is usually the case - I think a different dialect just generally takes getting used to), and really enjoyed the book. From start to end, there was a ton of suspense and a ton of mystery. I wanted to figure everything out, so I kept reading and reading, as I'm sure the author expected. It takes a certain type of mystery to intrigue me, and I think this fell into that category. Ness mastered it, in my opinion. Todd is being chased throughout the whole book; he's on the run while simultaneously trying to figure out what the hell is going on - and the reader is right there along with him. I doubt I could have put it down if an earthquake of seismic 10 proportions galloped through my house.

Since this is going to be a series, not all of my questions were answered. I hate cliffhangers, and this definitely had one, but it also wrapped up in a way that still settled your curiosity and satisfaction somewhat. There were certainly some sad bits, which I both hate and love, but overall I generally liked this book. And I'm definitely anticipating the sequel. (I looked and couldn't find any info on it - anyone know what it's called/when it's out?) Anyway, this would be an easy recommendation.

YA Book Club

You might have seen a few posts about my online YA book club in the past, but I'm trying to recruit more members. I just created a forum where all of our members can chat about books, movies, tv, etc. I posted a schedule of our monthly books, along with chat times (we have one live book discussion a month, in a private chatroom). There will also be authors coming in to talk to us, contests, and more! I'm really excited about this book club, and I want to make sure it keeps live and active.

If you're at all interested, please check out the forum at yabookclub.forumer.com and register. Let me know if you have any questions!

May's book club pick is Willow by Julia Hoban, by the way, which is a fantastic book. I hope you'll join in on the discussion at the end of this month! (Again, check the forum for more details.) :)

Drive Me Crazy - Contest!

First off, I want you to know this is a bonus contest. You can have the chance to enter for the original here. So you've got double the chances to win!

What's being given away on this page, though, are a couple copies of Drive Me Crazy by the lovely Erin Downing. Here's the summary:

Kate’s tote is packed and she’s ready for a road trip! She and her two best friends, Sierra and Alexis, are geared up for a week of fun and freedom on the road to their family lake houses in Love, Wisconsin. Best of all, when Kate reaches Love, she’ll be reunited with Lucas, with whom she shared a steamy end-of-summer kiss last year. Kate can’t wait to see Lucas again and pick things up exactly where they left off.

Then Kate gets some seriously bad news: Alexis’s sarcastic, condescending, hot-but-he-knows-it cousin is crashing the girls’ road trip. Adam bugs Kate in every possible way. Now Kate just wants to get the road trip over with so she can spend the summer in Lucas’s arms. But the road to Love is full of surprises …

It's part of a great line, which I'm sure you've heard of - Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies. *squee*

All you have to do to enter is comment on this post by June 2nd letting me know who your favorite character from a rocom is, and why.

And, remember, for an extra chance to win you can head to Erin Downing's website.

The Boyfriend List by E Lockhart

The Boyfriend List is the first full audio book I've ever listened to, (unless you count Bugs Life in third grade?) and I think it's destroying my taste for any others. I've checked out a few more after listening to this, and a lot seem extremely robotic. I guess you just have to find the right ones. And The Boyfriend List was certainly right.

I loved, more than anything, how E. Lockhart chose to tell the story. Ruby Oliver is instructed by her shrink to create (noting the title) a Boyfriend List. They aren't all boyfriends - some are just guys she's had crushes on, or went on one brief date with. But she was told to put any boy with even a remote impact on her life in there. I thought it was extremely clever to make each chapter titled after one specific boy, and consequentially, each of those chapters tells that boy's part in Ruby's life. At the beginning, we're given an ominous note of soon-disaster, but it plays out slowly and smartly throughout the chapters. That made this book, in my opinion, incredibly unique.

Ruby was also just an altogether funny and personality-filled character. I felt truly attached to her from beginning to end. I know there are a couple of sequels, so I'm definitely going to have to get on that soon. I remember, from reading Fly on the Wall, that E. Lockhart has quite the sense of humor, and The Boyfriend List proved that even more for me.

I know listening to an audio is a completely different experience than reading. Whether you want to or not, the narrator will leave an impression on the characters throughout the story. So each time I turn on a new one and hear Mr. Roboto talking, I quickly shut it off. I don't want a bad narrator to spoil an otherwise good story! But this narrator, in my opinion, fit Ruby perfectly. So if you're thinking of starting up on audiobooks, this a good one to listen to. Or just to read in general.

(Speaking of audiobooks, I found out the narrator of The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson is MILO VENTIMIGLIA. I have to listen to that. *sigh*)

For commenters - Do you like audiobooks? Can you recommend any good YA ones?

Airhead Contest

I have a significantly small pile of novels and series that are my absolute favorites. They're the Picasso's among toddler's crayon sketches. Ones I'd have to take with me anywhere - to college, on extended vacations, etc. I add to them very rarely, but after I read Airhead by Meg Cabot, it became an addition.

So, of course, I freaked when I was given the opportunity to give away 5 paperback copies of Airhead! Starting today, just comment on this post by May 20th to be entered. And, believe me, you want to win this one.

No one cares what’s inside.
EM WATTS IS GONE.

Emerson Watts didn’t even want to go to the new SoHo Stark Megastore grand opening. But someone needed to look out for her sister Frida, whose crush, British heartthrob Gabriel Luna, would be singing and signing autographs there—along with the newly appointed Face of Stark, teen supermodel sensation Nikki Howard.

How was Em to know that disaster would strike, changing her—and life as she’d known it—forever? One devastating accident later, and Em Watts, always the tomboy, never the party princess, is no longer herself. Literally.

Now getting her best friend Christopher to notice that she’s actually a girl is the least of Em’s problems.

But what Em’s pretty sure she’ll never be able to accept might just turn out to be the one thing that’s going to make her dream come true….

NIKKI HOWARD IS HERE TO STAY
It’s what’s outside that matters.

For more information, reviews, and a sample chapter check Meg Cabot's website here.

Check back for the winners on May 20th!