Review: The Dead and the Gone

Title: The Dead and the Gone
Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 0.5/5
Summary: A meteor hits the Moon, knocking it towards the Earth. Alex Morales lives in New York City with his family and must find a way to help them survive the chaos that ensues.

Review: Goodness. Am I getting persnickety or what?

Before I get any further in this review, you really should check out Life As We Knew It by this same author with a similar premise. That book is worth your time, without a doubt.

With that said, let me get down to business. This book was awful. I almost stopped reading it several times. What kept me going in the end wasn't wanting to know what happened to the characters. I got the idea that I should take notes as I read it so I can look for those problems in my own writing in the future, and that's why I finished it.

I was getting so annoyed while reading that I actually read passages aloud to Erik to make sure I wasn't off my rocker. He assured me that I am not—at least in regards to my opinion of this book.

So what follows is an exercise in trying to articulate what could made a book so awful. Here's the short version: Skip this book and read something else instead.

• The characters came across with the personality and depth of cardboard cutouts. Their dialogue was stilted and wooden—not realistic for teen characters at all.
• During most scenes, I could only assume that the characters were rendered completely immobile by some silent and unnamed attacker. They didn't brush hair out of their eyes, bite their lips, furrow their brows, tilt their heads, shift their weight to one foot, cross their arms, uncross their arms, look down, look up, look to the side, or even blink for Pete's sake. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But if I went back and counted all the characters' actions during the scenes of dialogue, I bet the fingers on two hands would be more than sufficient. Personally, I really like those little actions during dialogue, and I longed for them in this book. Those little actions help you know how a character's reacting to someone else's words. They give you clues about whether they're lying or happy or sad or tired. The only way I knew what the characters were feeling was...
• The author tells the characters' emotions instead of showing them. Don't tell me that "the priest looked exhausted." Show me that his eyes have dark circles under them or he's downing one cup of coffee after another or he keeps pressing the heels of his hand into his eye sockets. It's more interesting that way. The way I show exhaustion (go from zero to bitch in less than a second) is different from how someone else shows exhaustion (Erik, for example, will fall asleep mid-sentence). And that's how you get to know a person.
• Too much time was spent on inane details. Pages 88 to 91 describe every step one character goes through to pack a duffel bag for another character. Trust me, that wasn't necessary for the plot or character development.
• I'm not religious, but the religious parts came across as even flatter than the characters.

But possibly more important than all those writing mechanics, the reason you shouldn't read this or recommend this to anyone in its target age group is that it's depressing as hell.

I started the book on Saturday and finished it today. Starting last night and continuing into today, I was feeling pretty down and depressed. It took me a while to figure out this book was the cause. Not only does the book get pretty gruesome halfway through, but it's also completely devoid of hope. Dark is fine. I don't mind dark as long as there's some light to balance it out. I am a devout Buffy fan, after all. But this book goes too far.

2008 Books in Review

This year, I read almost as many books as the previous 2 years combined. 70 was the grand total for the year. (Who knew having a kid would give me more reading time?)

I'm always looking for book recommendations, so tell me: What were your favorite books last year?

Okay, okay. I'll go first. My two favorites of the year also make it to my all-time favorites list, so I would highly recommend them to anyone and everyone:

• Nonfiction: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
• Fiction: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

And there are a few more I'd recommend to specific folks...

For the Kids (or Kids at Heart)

• Feathers
  
• Flush
  
• Olive's Ocean
  
• The Penderwicks on Gardam Street (start with The Penderwicks)
  
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard
  
• Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos
  
• The Underneath

For the Teens

• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
  
• Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing (start with A Great and Terrible Beauty)

And go ahead and read the Twilight series. It's not the best stuff in the world, but it's fun as hell.

For the Aspiring Writers

• How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights
  
• No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days
  
• Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

For the Expecting or New Parents
Yes, I know you're tired and/or have a lot to do. But these are all worth it, I promise.

• Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love
  
• Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk
  
• The Diaper-Free Baby: The Natural Toilet Training Alternative
  
• Good Nights: The Happy Parents' Guide to the Family Bed (and a Peaceful Night's Sleep!)
  
• The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer
  
• Nursing Mother, Working Mother
  
• The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child

For the Other Parents

• Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
  
• Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family

Finally, Some 2008 Stats
I tend to read a novel or two in between every nonfiction book, so these numbers make sense:
Fiction: 66%
Nonfiction: 34%

And here's the breakdown within the fiction category:
Adult fiction: 13%
YA or kids' fiction: 87%

Review: Wicked Lovely

Title: Wicked Lovely
Author: Melissa Marr
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 2/5
Summary: High school junior Aislinn can see faeries, but they're not all glitter and Tinkerbell. Try cruel. But now one faery in particular is stalking her, and he just so happens to be a faery king looking for his queen.

Review: I loved the premise of this book, but I didn't connect with the main character. She was whiny and constantly turning to her older, overly protective not-a-boyfriend for help.

I also had a really hard time with all the changes in point of view. There's a way to do that well, and this ain't it. The point of view changed several times in a chapter, sometimes within the same scene. I never felt like I could settle into a character and really see through their eyes.

Review: Little Brother

Title: Little Brother
Author: Cory Doctorow
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary: 17-year-old Marcus is in the wrong place at the wrong time after a terrorist attack in San Francisco, and the Department of Homeland Security picks him up for questioning.

Review: This book offers up a bone-chilling vision of the world after a terrorist attack. The Department of Homeland Security is given free rein to do whatever they want. Surveillance of civilians hits unfathomable levels, and widespread fear makes that an easy pill for everyone to swallow. Almost everyone.

Marcus and his friends rebel against the crack-down, and his technological knowledge keeps him one step ahead of the DHS.

I mostly enjoyed the little diversions explaining the technology Marcus or the DHS were using, but those diversions sometimes felt a little too much like a lesson and not enough like a novel. Aside from that, this book made for an exciting read.

Review: What I Saw and How I Lied

Title: What I Saw and How I Lied
Author: Judy Blundell
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary: 15-year-old Evie tags along with her mom and stepdad on an impromptu vacation to Palm Springs, where she finds love, mystery, and tragedy.

Review: This book won the National Book Award this year. I've never read a bad National Book Award winner, and this book was no exception with its excellent writing, compelling story, and realistic portrayal of America after World War II.

However, I've now read all but one of this year's National Book Award nominees in the Young People's Literature category, and this book wasn't the standout for me. My favorite of the nominees (and of the year) was The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.

But with that said, What I Saw and How I Lied is wonderful. I think a lot of girls who wish they would hurry up and blossom will identify with Evie right off the bat. I never can get enough of those plain-girl-who-turns-out-to-be-pretty stories, myself.

So go ahead and enjoy this very worth-your-time story, but don't miss The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.

Review: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Title: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Author: E. Lockhart
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 5/5
Summary: A sophomore geek-turned-beauty at an elite boarding school starts dating a gorgeous and popular senior. There's just one problem—her new boyfriend is a member of a secret, all-male society, and she's not invited.

Review: Best novel I've read all year, hands down.

I immediately fell in love with the quirky, gutsy Frankie Landau-Banks. (But in a platonic, you're-a-fictional-character way, I assure you.)

Frankie is the kind of girl I wish I'd had the guts to be in high school. Not that Plano Senior High had a secret society to flout (although, given the money in that town maybe it did). But Frankie is about as self-assured as you can get as a teenage girl nowadays. Plus, she's wicked smart and can debate like the dickens.

Ladies: Read this book, even if you "don't read kids' books." Pshaw. If you have an inner girl who kicks ass, she'll love this book. Don't deny her the joy of reading this.

Guys: I can't pretend to know whether a book like this would strike your fancy, but I'd love to find out. So if you read it, report back here!

Everyone: If you know a girl around Frankie's age, give her this book for Christmas or her next birthday or just because (which is the best kind of present anyway).

Review: Breaking Dawn

Title: Breaking Dawn
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3/5
Summary: The conclusion to Bella and Edward's love story.

Review: Of all the books in The Twilight Saga, Twilight has been my favorite. But I liked this final book about as much as I did all the others. As with most of Meyer's novels, I liked it but didn't love it. Yet I still had this all-consuming desire to read it in every spare moment of the day. So even though I had to wake up at 5:30 this morning and I knew Abby would be waking up at least once to eat, I stayed up til almost midnight to finish this puppy.

This was another great read, but I did have a couple disappointments. Stop reading here if you don't want me to spoil anything.

About halfway through the book, everything's all fine and dandy with no major conflict on the horizon, which was nice and all but it got pretty boring after a short while. I didn't really feel the impending doom of the Volturi until after this blissed-out section. And this isn't really a disappointment in this book but more in the others: Bella finally, finally, FINALLY saves the day. But she had to become a vampire to do it! That just rubs me the wrong way. I so wish Bella had been given some special quality, talent, skill, SOMETHING that she could have used in a pinch in the other books. She was always being rescued by the Cullens or Jacob.

With Harry Potter, his status as a wizard is unremarkable. What's remarkable and what saves the day time and time again is his character—who he is as a person. So it's easy to identify with Harry, and it's satisfying to read about how he saves the day.

Bella is just not a strong character. Not until she becomes a vampire, that is. And even then she's constantly belittling herself! I think the reason I was able to still get really into this final book is all the description of Bella's feelings for her daughter. Every time I read a passage about Nessie, I had this overwhelming urge to go smother Abby in hugs and kisses. I guess you could argue that the fact that she protected her daughter before birth shows strength. But how did she do that? She went running to a vampire bodyguard and sat back and let other people take care of her and decide the best way for doing so.

It's such a compelling plot and world, it seems such a waste that the main character is so completely and utterly weak.

Review: The Sweet Far Thing

Title: The Sweet Far Thing
Author: Libba Bray
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Summary: Like her mother before her, Gemma Doyle can travel to an enchanted world called the realms. But when Gemma came up against the corrupted sorceress who killed her mother, she bound the magic to herself to protect all worlds from the sorceress. Now all manner of powerful organizations are trying to wrest the magic away from Gemma, and she doesn't know who she can trust.

Review: Clever, passionate, self-deprecating Gemma Doyle—I'm going to miss you. This final book of the Gemma Doyle trilogy was maybe a little on the long side, but I enjoyed it all and I was sad when it was over. At the moment I finished reading the last page, I found myself wanting to immediately start re-reading the first book of the trilogy—A Great and Terrible Beauty. The only other time I've felt that urge with a fiction series is with Harry Potter!

I can't wait to see what else this writer does.

Review: Flash Point

Title: Flash Point
Author: Sneed B. Collard
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary: A high school sophomore who lives in a logging community finds himself disagreeing with just about everyone in town about why the nearby forest fires are so bad.

Review: YA novels with environmental themes can be hit or miss for me, but I enjoyed this one. Even though the environmental issues were central to the story, it didn't feel preachy at all. The details about birds of prey were so vivid. I'm too much of a chicken to watch nature TV shows about predators, but this book had me riveted and I didn't mind (too much) reading about the birds eating mice and rabbits. And the scenes with the wildfire had me reading at lightning speed to find out what happens at the end!

Review: The Off Season

Title: The Off Season
Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary: D.J. Schwenk starts her junior year of high school as a linebacker on the football team. Just as her relationship with the quarterback at a rival high school starts to heat up, real life gets in the way.

Review: I liked this sequel better than The Dairy Queen because the action picked up a lot faster. It's easy to root for this honest, hard-working girl who just so happens to be a linebacker. And even though the plot was a little more heavy than the first book, I think it was handled in a much more balanced way that left me feeling hopeful at the end. I also liked that certain things weren't given a Hollywood ending.