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Outside It All: Fiction About Not Fitting In |
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Abuse and Trauma: Coming Out the Other Side |
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Out and Proud: Great Lesbian & Gay Fiction |
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Teen Pregnancy: Honest Fiction |
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Supernatural Reads: Paranormal and Psychic Fiction |
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Magic Around Us: Magic and Fantasy Fiction |
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Survival and Adventure: Fighting to Live |
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Teens Coping Alone: Dealing with Absent Parents |
Tough Times: Surviving and Thriving |
Boy Books: For Girls, Too |
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Dealing With Death: It Touches Everyone |
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Dealing With Life As It Comes |
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| This book was the best! You won't be able to put it down—and you won't want to. Worth every penny! |
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| A great read. Don't let this book pass you by. Recommended! |
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| A good book. Worth checking out. |
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| Passes the time...if you can stay engrossed. I didn't enjoy it much, but it may appeal to some people. |
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| This book didn't work for me. But that doesn't mean it won't work for you. |
Dealing With Death:
It Touches Everyone
Rules for Life
by Darlene Ryan
Orca, October, 2004, 144 pages. ISBN: 1551433508
My rating:
I knew my father had had sex the minute I walked into the kitchen. It wasn't as though he was smoking a cigarette and basking in the afterglow. It was subtler than that.
But I knew.
It was his hair. Dad is really particular about his hair. It's strawberry blond, like mine. He spends more money on shampoo and conditioner and gel than I ever would. I just wash mine and twist it up in the back. He goes to a stylist at a salon where you have to make an appointment two weeks in advance. I go to the walk-in place and take whoever has a free chair.
--Rules for Life Darlene Ryan, p. 1.
Izzy has had a very close relationship with her father, almost as if they were friends, ever since her mother died two years earlier. They talk about everything. But then things change. Izzy's father gets seriously interested in someone, and decides to marry the woman--a decision that puts a wedge between Izzy and her father.
Izzy feels threatened by the presence of her new stepmother, and cannot accept her in her life, or the changes it makes in her relationship with her father. And her father can't accept Izzy's resistance; he becomes cold and distant, and this makes Izzy even more miserable. She clings even closer to the "rules" her mother taught her, as if that will bring her dead mother closer. As her brother starts acting out in pain, her father starts treating her coldly, and a tragic incident occurs with her new stepmother, Izzy learns the importance of love, acceptance, and being close to the people you love.
This is a moving, compelling story. The language is fresh and vivid, the characters strong--especially Izzy, her brother, her new stepmother, and her dead mother. Although we never get to meet Izzy's dead mother, she comes alive in her unique rules that she left her daughter. Izzy has a fresh, vibrant voice, and she is a very believable character; she feels very real, and we care about her and the people she loves. We get a great sense of the characters, and their relationships and emotional reactions feel very real. There are also many nice nuances and subtleties in the writing. This is an exceptionally well-written book.
However, the father's character abruptly changes, from a kind, compassionate father who has a close connection to his daughter, an almost friendship, to a coldness, distance, and lack of understanding that doesn't seem believable, based on his previous relationship and treatment of Izzy. It felt like he changed into a different character, or that his character was misrepresented in the early part of the book to bring more lightness there, or perhaps more pain later. It didn't work for me.
There is a nice build up to the resolution, which makes the ending all the more satisfying and believable, and a nice movement towards growing closeness between Izzy and her stepmother. There are some painful subjects and raw emotion throughout this book, but there is lots of comfort and lightness to balance this out, and all the characters, except the father, feel very real in their actions and reactions.
This is a great read. If you love characters with depth, characters who feel and react, you won't be able to put this book down. Highly recommended.
You can read an excerpt from the book (or Ryan's new one), read some tips on writing, and more at her site: www.darleneryan.com
-Added February 08, 2005.
Falling Through Darkness
by Carolyn MacCullough
Millbrook Press, Sept. 2003. 160 pages. ISBN: 0761319344
My rating:
Sometimes she stays in bed for an hour, smoking, listening to the world outside her window. Her father always calls around noon, just to check in, as he invariably phrases it, to ask about her plans for the day. On the phone, his voice is careful, as if the telephone is an instrument that could startle her.
He always thinks he's being so quiet as he moves around the pre-dawn house, shutting doors gently behind him, whistling only a few notes before he breaks off in mid-song, an apologetic silence following. He doesn't know that she is awake, hours, sometimes half the night, listening for a sound that will never come again. A whistle, faint and sweet, two notes.
--Falling Through Darkness Carolyn MacCullough, p. 3-4.
Seventeen-year-old Ginny has been living in depression, anger, and pain ever since the car crash which killed her boyfriend, Aiden, but which she survived. She can't muster up the energy to do the things she used to, or to even care. So many things trigger memories of Aiden, and of the way they used to be. Ginny fluidly moves in and out of the present and the past; sometimes the past seems more real to her.
Though her father clearly loves her, Ginny doesn't feel she can talk to him about the night Aiden died. Instead, she looks outside her family and her closest friend for someone she can confide in, or for an interest which will distract her from her thoughts of Aiden, and she finds both in the new tenant, Caleb, who moves into their house. Ginny feels the heaviness, the secrets that Caleb himself carries. As Ginny keeps moving from present to past to present again, she slowly faces all the things that she's been trying to keep from herself.
Most of the characters feel multi-layered, vivid, and real in this book. The story is written with a beautiful sense of rhythm and language, gripping emotion, and fresh phrases. The movement between past and present is seamless and well crafted, and the secrets that slowly unfold make you want to read on. We are given more and more pieces about the night Aiden died, until it all makes sense. There is also a nice balance of grief and anger, and compassion and love.
There are only a few small things which detract from the power of the book. Ginny's mother appears in a lengthy scene, but the issues raised are not dealt with again, nor, really, is her mother. Merry and her boyfriend often feel like flat characters. Aiden's almost hero-status in the beginning of the relationship seems a little unreal. And a child that Ginny worked with through her job at the library brings up some information that seems to suggest far more than is ever picked up on again. But these things do not interfere with the pleasure of a story well told.
This is a moving, powerful book about dealing with suicide, relationship abuse, and death, and with good relationships, healing, and hope. The skill of the writing will keep you glued to the story; it is involving, emotionally satisfying, and very well written. A great read!
-Added Feb. 17, 2004
Walk Softly, Rachel
by Kate Banks
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Sept. 2003. 160 pages. ISBN: 0374382301
My rating:
Once upon a time there was a boy named Jake. He was tall and strong and clever. And he had a nice family who loved him. His teachers loved him. But he did not love himself. When he saw his face in a window, or in a mirror, he would turn and start to run. Pretty soon he was running all the time, further from home, further from his family, further from life, further from himself.
--Walk Softly, Rachel, Kate Banks, p. 25.
Rachel's family has been on hold since her older brother Jake died, years earlier. Fourteen-year-old Rachel hardly remembers Jake, and her family never talks about him. So when she stumbles on his diary, Rachel reads it thoroughly, and comes to know him better, perhaps for the first time. She reads of his anguish and pain, his vulnerability and fear that he kept hidden behind his good looks and many accomplishments, and his thoughts of suicide. Throughout the book, his thoughts coincide with Rachel's, perhaps too well; they feel too carefully arranged. For every major thought or realization that Rachel has, there is Jake's very same thought, or vice versa, along with other examples that make it feel like the point is being slammed home. However, the realizations are often insightful and deep.
The book opens up with Rachel's loss of her best friend, Adrian, who we only hear about off-stage and who we find hard to connect to, even though he clearly meant a lot to Rachel. The loss of her best friend intertwines with her loss of Jake, and as Rachel slowly reads Jake's diary, she makes new insights and changes, and starts to see her family differently. Over time, she comes to realize that the past has to be faced and can be healed, and that forgiveness is possible. A thought-provoking story.
We are told many things about Rachel, but are not always led to experience them with her, and sometimes it feels like we don't know her at all. Rachel laughs instead of cries, and cries instead of laughs—a trait she can't seem to stop, even though she really wants to, and a trait that could be very interesting, if explored more. The trait feels almost like a tool used to make Rachel more interesting, but it doesn't come off as totally believable. The same thing is true with her semi-boyfriend, Bowman, who suddenly appears lighting matches.
Rachel's parents also feel like caricatures—her mother, an emotionally distant, not present judge, and her father a doctor who tells jokes to cover up his pain. The characters, including, at times, Rachel, are not always convincing.
The entries from Jake's diary are powerful, well-written, and sometimes more emotionally engaging than Rachel; at times they overshadow Rachel. Yet all this is counterbalanced with incredibly poetic sentences that are woven throughout the book, along with simple, eloquent language and some great insights. "I feel the cold just as he's described it nestling in the layers of my skin. I remember his words, and I want to forget."
The simple, eloquent language in this book makes it an easy read, but there are awkward moments and areas where we are told the same thing repeatedly. An insightful, thoughtful book. There is some very powerful writing here, but many things interfere with the power of the story.
-Added August 14, 2003
Bringing Up the Bones
by Lara M. Zeises
Delacorte, 2002. ISBN: 0385730012
My rating:
I am invisible in my chair. I am eyes peering out from nothingness. My ears ache from the constant noise; my jaw is tired from holding its constant clench. The air is thick with fruity hair spray, Drakkar Noir, and malt liquor. The combination is making me queasy. I think I've served my time.
--Bringing up the Bones, Lara M. Zeises, p. 23-24.
18-year-old Bridget loved Benji, her best friend, all her life, and wanted to have more than just a friendship with him—but he didn't love her the same way. After years of asking him, she finally got him to try. Their relationship lasted nine months (about seven of them a long-distance relationship), and then he broke up with her. A few weeks later, he was dead. Bridget can't get over him, over the pain this has left her, and all her unresolved feelings. She goes into a deep depression.
One night at a party, about a year after Benji's death, she's drawn to an attractive, sweet guy, and has sex with him. Immediately afterwards, she feels like she's cheated on Benji. She develops a relationship with Jasper, and though he is often kind and caring, they go through a lot of rockiness. It doesn't help that Bridget can't even tell him that Benji is dead; the memory of Benji is like a shadow that follows her everywhere. Her relationship with her emotionally absent mother is even worse, though her rich step-father clearly loves her, as does Benji's family, and her one good friend. Bridget tries to hide herself and her pain away from everyone, including her therapist.
Gradually, however, Bridget begins to work through some of the emotions she carries around Benji, and comes to realize that all her life she tried to become what others wanted her to be—not what she was.
This is a gripping book, an emotional rollercoaster of unrequited love, the pain of death, the bumps in relationships, and healing. The intense emotion draws the story forward, and is beautifully depicted. Bridget is, for much of the book, caught up in her delusions, grief, and pain, but we gradually see her make movement toward healing, and the tenderness of some moments with Jasper, some of her supportive relationships, and many of her realizations help balance this out. While Bridget often appears to be very self-absorbed and caught up in her own emotional world, she reveals other sides to herself through her being a support to Benji's younger sister, and through some moments with Jasper. Although her need to delude herself about Benji becomes irritating at times, her depth and amount of looking inward help make her a likeable and sympathizable character.
The writing is intense, with stunning descriptions of emotional turmoil, a good use of the various senses, and well-crafted prose. The ending was, for me, abrupt, disappointing, and made me feel cheated, although many others may enjoy the ending. The talented, gripping writing of the rest of the story more than made up for the disappointment I felt in the bittersweet ending. Readers who know depression, a difficult break-up, or the death of a loved one will be able to relate. This is a powerful read. Recommended.
-Added August 1, 2003
A Time For Dancing
by Davida Wills Hurwin
Puffin, 1997 (reprint). 272 pages. ISBN: 0140386181
My rating:
"Cancer." She whispered it so lightly I almost didn't hear. Then the word flew over and smacked me.
I stopped, as in ceased. Completely, utterly, no life in me for what seemed like years. Immense silence descended. I could only hear my heart. Everything else had moved outside my range of perception. Nothing was possible---not speech, not tears, not thought.
... I wished I could go back to yesterday and skip right to tomorrow, so this could not occur.
Then I wanted to laugh. Bubbles of it came up from inside, and there wasn't a thing I could do to stop them. Sounds started coming out---rigid, ugly sounds---and I wanted to tell Jules I was sorry, I didn't really think it was funny, that I didn't mean to laugh, but I couldn't stop. The sounds kept pouring out. All of a sudden, it wasn't laughing any more---it was tears.
--A Time for Dancing, Davida Wills Hurwin, p. 64.
Samantha and Julie have been close friends, almost inseparable, ever since they nine in dancing school. But when they are both seventeen, Julie is diagnosed with cancer—cancer that is moving fast through her body. With the diagnosis, things change. Although Julie goes through chemotherapy, it is not effective, and both girls realize she is dying, and her dream of becoming a professional dancer is dying with her.
The friendship and honesty that came so easily before now falters and becomes harder as Julie struggles with the changes her illness brings, and both girls struggle with the thought of her dying. Samantha tries to be there for Julie, but her fear at losing Julie sometimes interferes. Yet in the end, both girls are able to face Julie's death with courage, and are able to find a kind of closure.
The book is written in alternating sections from Samantha and Julie's point of view, and each character is fully drawn, believable, and layered. Samantha and Julie's families are also very real, as are the reactions of other people, and the medical setting. With true-to-life reactions, great details, and evocative prose, A Time for Dancing will pull you in and keep you there for the entire book; it is a gripping read.
This is a deeply moving, intense, emotional book that feels honest and real. It's very well written; you're always right there with the two girls, never pulled out of the story. If you haven't read this book yet, go pick up a copy. It's a powerful book that will make you treasure your friends and the love you have, and may even help you move through some of the fear and pain associated with death. If you've known love and loss, you'll be able to relate. Highly recommended.
Remembering Mog
by Colby Rodowsky
Flare, 1998. ISBN: 0380729229
My rating:
Annie's older sister was murdered two years earlier. Annie is having trouble continuing on with her life; she is the age now that her sister was when she was murdered. She grows depressed and withdraws, becoming isolated. Her parents are no help; they're caught in their own grief. With some help from others and her own inner strength, Annie finds a way to work through her grief, yet still remember her sister.
Intense, emotional, and honest, this is a gripping book that is powerfully written.
Last Left Standing
by Barbara Russell
Puffin, 1998 (reprint). ISBN: 0140386866
My rating:
Josh is having trouble dealing with his older brother's death. He goes off by himself every day into the orange groves near his house, and pretends that his brother Toby is really just away at camp, not dead. One day in his wanderings, he comes across an older woman and a developmentally delayed girl who knew his brother—and who didn't know that he'd died. Josh makes up a lie about the reason his brother hasn't been around—and starts to take over the jobs that Toby had been doing for them. Josh becomes more and more pulled into the lie he told, until finally he must face reality when the girl suffers her own loss.
A moving, uplifting story.
More great teen reads!
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at any time. |
my books:
Dragon Speaker: The Last Dragon is a hi-lo (high interest, low vocabulary) fantasy for teens and fantasy lovers, from HIP Books.
A boy who speaks with birds is the only one who can save the last dragon....
SCARS, my realistic fiction teen book, comes out in 2010.
15-year-old Kendra was sexually abused as a kid. She doesn't remember who her abuser is, and she doesn't want to. When her memories get too painful, Kendra cuts herself to escape. But then her abuser, through notes, threatens to hurt her if she names him. Kendra must remember who abused her before it's too late.