Books and Sensibility

We're an Open Book

Young Adult Fiction

Book Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

     5 Comments

“I like how you’re neither here nor there. And how there’s nowhere else you’re meant to be while waiting. You’re just sort of suspended.”

                                                                                                 – Jennifer E. Smith, The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight

 

 

This has to be one of the most unique and heartfelt contemporary YA books I have read in a while. With a title containing the words ‘love at first sight’ I was afraid it was going to run into insta-love category, but I found it far from it. It’s not so much about love at first sight, but the possibility of love at first sight and other things.

 The story follows roughly 24 hours of the life of Hadley Sullivan as she catches a plane to London to attend her father’s wedding to a woman she has never met. Along the way she meets Oliver and through the story she  is trying to learn how to reconcile her feelings with her father and his new marriage. 

Smith uses  an excellent writing style that is sparse and simple, but still tells you so much. She is an excellent storyteller–I felt sympathy with the characters and connected through the use of retrospective story telling.  

…

Read this Post

Book Review : Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

     7 Comments

“Why be the sheep when you can be the wolf ?”

 

Synopsis : Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. 

In the late 15th century the nation of Brittany is entrenched in mysticism, war, and treason. Ismae, a simple pig farmer’s daughter, is plucked from a life of hardship to serve Death as an assassin. In the midst of her training, she becomes involved in a clandestine plot and must serve the royal family and her country.

…

Read this Post

Book Review : Born Wicked By Jessica Spotswood

     1 Comment

 

Synopsis: Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave. . . Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance.

Born Wicked is a debut historical fiction that features an alternate history with a magical twist. In this revision of 1890’s New England, the Brotherhood–a sect of a priest–rule with an iron fist over the lives of women who fear they may be witches.

…

Read this Post

Book Review : Divergent by Veronica Roth

     4 Comments

Synopsis : In a future Chicago, 16-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

When I first got back into reading YA, Divergent was everywhere. When I grabbed it for 6.00 at the used  book store, it just sort of sat on my shelf. However, after Divergent  won Favorite Book of 2011 at Goodreads and Story Siren’s Best of 2011 DebutI knew I had to check it out.
Divergent has a unique concept. Tris and her family live in a peaceful Utopia where society is dived into factions which represent individual ideals Dauntless (bravery), Amity (peace), Abegnation (selflessness ) and Erudite (intelligence).

Every child is raised in their own faction , but when they turn sixteen they are tested to determine the best faction for them. They can  either choose to stay with their faction or leave it all behind to join another faction, never to see their families again.

Faction before family.

…

Read this Post

Book Review: Shine by Lauren Myracle

     4 Comments

“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.

 …

Read this Post

Book Review: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

     2 Comments

“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.

…

Read this Post