Books and Sensibility

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Contemporary YA

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

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  • Release Date  :  May 13th 2014
  • Genre: Contemporary
  • Pages : 240 
  • Publisher : Delacorte

Okay This is going to be
a hard review to write. One of the reasons I had to read We Were Liars was
because I  kept hearing that this was the
book to read, but you can’t know what it is about. . . you just have to read it.

Honestly, if you
don’t see it coming (which I did but the book made me doubt myself)  I think this book will shock you and have you flipping back and re-reading over and over again.

We Were Liars
centers around   Cadence Sinclair and
the extended Sinclair family. Each summer  he family summers on their private island. Blonde, pretty and
privileged on the outside the Sinclairs seems to have everything, but on the inside  greed,
jealousy and denial threaten to take over.

Something happens on  Cady’s  15th summer at the island that she has no memory of, now two years later she’s going to find out how far the lies go.

This was exactly the type of contemporary novel that works for me because it takes on so many topics. Lockhart explores  race, class, romance and family in a way
that makes you doubt what you know and what you think you know about the characters. 

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Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

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  • Release Date: June 11, 2013
  • Pages: 216
  • Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

 

I honestly have no idea how to begin reviewing a book like Charm & Strange. The entire story is told through the often fuzzy lens of an unreliable narrator, so you never really know what is going on. However by the time I got to the end I was  impressed with this debut novel from Stephanie Kuehn. Charm & Strange has to be the most unique YA I’ve read in a long time, it challenges so many of the ideas of what a YA novel can be.…

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Days of David Levithan: Lover’s Dictionary and Realm of Possibility

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Between 2013-2014 I attempt to read a large selection of David Levithan novels.
 See the full list here

We are kind of skipping around in publication order because I think these two Levithan novels have a lot in common as they are both love stories written in nontraditional prose.

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Jess’ Impressions : The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

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I did it! I’m on a mission to read the most hyped YA books and I finally made it to TFiOS. I’m not going to review this in the traditional sense, but here are my impressions and thoughts on one of the most buzzed books of the last 2 years.

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Book Review: Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

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  • Release Date: December 2, 2010
  • Publisher: Dutton (Penguin)
  • Pages: 372
  • Genre: Contemporary

This book has been on my to-read list since I saw this video where John Green practically gushed about it. I finally bought it in 2012 and its one of those books that sat on my shelf for  so long I forgot about. I ended up picking this out of the TBR book jarand I figured it was about time, especially since book three in this series comes out later this year. 

The titular Anna is the daughter of a Nicholas Sparks expy who decides that for Anna’s senior year she is going  to The School of America in Paris, an American boarding school right in the city of love. There she joins up with a close knit group of friends and Étienne St. Clair, the American boy with a French name and English accent. Yes, you read that right.

Now, I’ve read a lot of contemporary YAs and Anna and The French Kiss hits all the usual marks:

Girl who is pretty, but doesn’t see it ? Check

Nice, hot guy, everyone likes ? Check

Mean girl ? Check

References to literature and philosophical concepts that call back to the plot ? Check

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Book Review: Through to You by Emily Hainsworth

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  • Release Date: October 2, 2012
  • Pages: 272
  • Genre: Supernatural Realism
  • Publisher: Balzer + Bray (Harper Collins)

Through to You is one of those books that is an insta-pick up for me; a contemporary realistic story with a slight unexplainable element tossed in. The main story focuses on Cameron Pike as he mourns the sudden death of his girlfriend, Viv; and what happens  when a mysterious girl and  mysterious green light show him to an alternate version of his life.

This is one of those books that is hard to talk too much about without ruining too much of the plot. Nothing in the book is every really what it seems and there are some interesting twists and turns. However, I think this book would have made a great short story or novella, because as a novel it dragged on its feet in the middle and was grasping for plots.

Cameron as a protagonist didn’t pop off the page, while there are some great moments when we see him work through some of his depression and relationships his voice didn’t come through the page. The supporting character inhabiting both the real world and the alternate world were also kind of one note as well.

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