Books and Sensibility

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Kat C

Book Review: The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez with Jenna Glatzer

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Synopsis: In The Pregnancy Project, Gaby details how she was able to fake her own pregnancy—hiding the truth from even her siblings and boyfriend’s parents—and reveals all that she learned from the experience. But more than that, Gaby’s story is about fighting stereotypes, and how one girl found the strength to come out from the shadow of low expectations to forge a bright future for herself.

The Pregnancy Project first came on my radar in January, when I watched the Lifetime movie based on the book . I had never heard the story and how could it not peak my interest? A teenager who faked her pregnancy for a school project? What was that all about? While the movie was decent, it left me with more questions, so I headed to the library for the book.

Luckily, this memoir provides a concise and pretty powerful story of not just Gabby’s struggles, but her family’s struggles as well. This is the first book in a while I’ve actually had an emotional reaction too. 

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Book Review: Shine by Lauren Myracle

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“I’d heard a saying about meth, that it took you down one of three roads: jail, the psych ward, or death.”

– Shine by Lauren Myracle

Shine first came on my radar with the drama over The National Book Award debacle, where Lauren Myracle was accidentally nominated and asked to back out. The synopsis intrigued me, so I finally picked this book up.

Shine is the story of Cat, a teenaged girl on the journey for answers when her former best friend, Patrick is the victim of an extremely violent hate crime. Along the way  she learns the dark secrets and hidden realities of the town she lives in.

This books starts off brilliantly, there is a certain atmospheric writing style that Myrcale uses that just brings you in to the world of the story.  You very quickly learn the life that Cat leads.The setting, Black Creek, North Carolina is a back woods town with a  lot of backwards thinking. One of the biggest problems plaguing the town is meth.

There are a lot of rich characters in the novel and you start to feel for them. This reminds me very much of To Kill a Mockingbird, where the context of the story is so much involved in learning about the people in the town. The only thing is their  is no Atticus Finch in this story. None of the characters are particularly redeeming or good, not even Cat herself. I think Robert, an eleven-year-old who was born addicted to drugs and yearns for attention from the older teenagers stood out the most for me.

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Book Review: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

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“Am I a player in this scenario or a puppet? I guess, in the end, it doesn’t matter. It is what it is: my destiny.”

– Cynthia Hand, Unearthly

 

So, seriously Harper Teen is the best ! I got this book for .99 on my Kindle over the holiday season. Before that, it wasn’t even on my radar , it was just another pretty girl in a pretty dress cover.

I’m not  a big fan of paranormal romances. To me they all tend to be the same and have a similar kind of ugh-inducing female protagonist who doesn’t exist outside of the new guy they met. And while Unearthly falls victim to some of the usual tropes in paranormal romance (new person in school, love interest is dating mean girl, single parent . . .) I took a liking to it.

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Book Review : Red Glove by Holly Black

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“Changing is what people do when they have no options left.” 

― Holly Black, Red Glove

In the second book in the Curse Workers Series, our coffee addled protagonist Cassel Sharpe is still clever as the devil and twice as pretty. Red Glove expands the world we were introduced into in White Cat, something I think every good sequel needs to do. In this novel, we meet new characters, get to see more into Wallingford and learn more about curse worker politics

The plot wasn’t as tight and concise as the first one. This novel reads less like a con job and more like a murder mystery While this series is a fantasy, White Cat felt more realistic than Red Glove. That isn’t to say it’s awful, it just doesn’t flow as well as it did in the first book.

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Book Review : Obsidian by Jennifer Armentrout

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“You know what they say about boys next door…” 

– Jennifer L. Armentrout, Obsidian

Yeah, new covers ! !!

So, I kind of have a weird relationship with this book. When I first started book blogging this was one of the first books I saw on a book blog. I thought the original cover was kind of off and one of my our first posts involved seriously critiquing it.

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Book Review : Name of The Star by Maureen Johnson

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“Keep calm and carry on. 

Also, stay in and hide because the Ripper is coming.” 

― Maureen Johnson, The Name of the Star

As a fan of Maureen Johnson, this novel was on my radar pretty early. The cover and synopsis of this novel looked like a departure from her usual work so I was excited to see what  Johnson would come up with. She doesn’t usually write paranormal stuff and most of her books aren’t series.

The Name Of The Star starts off at a slow pace. Lousiana teenager Aurora “Rory” Deveaux decides to attend Wexford, a London boarding school when her parents get jobs in England.  At the same time, a string of Jack The Ripper copycat murders are happening around the school.

 We are slowly dipped into  world of Wexford and get a feel for Rory’s environment and the tension of the situation.  Once the plot got rolling I was quickly captivated.

I think this book is perfect for Americans who are obsessed with British culture and life.  I know Johnson splits her time between London and New York so, I think she included some interesting aspects of British life we may not be aware of. Like that they have bars at high school dances. Her descriptions of Wexford and London felt so spot on, it made me want to visit.

The book and characters come off as very British maybe to a point where it feels cliched. It takes place at a boarding school. One character likes to drink tea and read in the evening and of course, they have names like Jazza, Boo and Callum.

 Rory doesn’t have the strongest of personalities, but I feel like we get to know a lot about who she is and where she comes from.I loved her relationship with her roommate Jazza. The two girls like to read books and drink tea in the evening and I think that’s something most people reading this review can appreciate. They felt so real.

Johnson has also created a pretty large and diverse cast without making it super obvious. It was nice to see characters from different backgrounds show up in YA.  I loved most of the characters, they felt fully developed and I could clearly see them in my head. I honestly felt like they all didn’t get enough screen time.

Even though this is a contemporary-ish novel with a paranormal twist, I think the world-building was really solid. I think Johnson captures exactly what would happen if there was a repeat of the Jack the Ripper murders

Johnson will occasionally swtich perspective to tell a more full story and I thought it flowed nicely with the storytelling. The plot felt like it could have been more intricately handled it seemed a little muddled. Overall the story was good, but the details could have been better. Once the big reveal was made I was hooked, but I wish it had been handled differently. This book also has a  cliffhanger, something I think a book really needs to sustain itself as a series.

Also, is this a Twilight reference ???

“I looked at the stained-glass image of the lamb in the window above me, but that only reminded me that lambs are famous for being led to slaughter, or sometimes hanging out with lions in ill-advised relationships.”