The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (3 stars):
I love John Green. I'm so glad we have authors like him (and like Libba Bray, Melina Marchetta, A.S. King, and Marcus Zusek, among others) to counteract all the crap that's marketed to teen readers. With that said, I wasn't all that impressed with this book.
It's nothing technical -- Green is a fantastic writer. Everything works here: interesting characters, great dialogue, good pacing. In fact, it reads just the way you'd expect a John Green novel to read. Which is kind of the problem, as you've probably seen from other reviews. I just didn't find anything NEW here. Honestly, I thought the Amsterdam subplot was a stretch, and it was in the transition where the trip occurs that things felt awkward and clunky. Even to the point where I felt that things were being manipulated too strongly by the author, and that's usually not something I normally think while I'm reading a John Green novel.
Of course, there were many things that I liked, too: Hazel's dad in particular is made of awesome, and I loved seeing little things I loved sprinkled throughout the book (J. Alfred Prufrock, you will always be my favorite). I liked getting a signed copy of the book, and I especially liked my Hanklerfish. :)
But I stick by my rating; when all is said and done, this was just a so-so read for me. I liked it; I just didn't LOVE it.
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (5 stars):
A.S. King has been added to my list of go-to YA authors. Basically that means that whatever she writes, I'll read. She creates characters with such distinctive voices and puts them into the rawest, realest situations. Her books are heavy but hopeful. More than that, they require that you sit up and take notice and then urge you to DO SOMETHING but not in a way that's preachy or sentimental. I have a hard time writing about her books because I want to get into the details and really DISCUSS them -- and that's not what reviews are for. But that's how good her books are -- I want to talk about them and share them and act on them. This writer, she's incredible.
Pearl Jam twenty by Pearl Jam (5 stars):
There's so so so much PJ goodness here. Photos, interviews, set lists. This definitely isn't a book you can sit down and consume all at once. It's better to take your time...read a little bit here, a little bit there. Pearl Jam has been one of the few bands that I've consistently listened to for the last 20 years, so recounting this journey feels like walking through my own history. If you're a fan, I think you need this book.
Evermore by Alyson Noel (1 star):
There's honestly nothing good that I can say about this book. Well, the writing was decent. But the characters drove me crazy (there was WAY too much Edward Cullen in Damen), and the plotting/pacing was just so poorly constructed. When I see adults complaining about the type of books available for their teens, I know that this is what they've seen on the bookshelves in bookstores and big box stores, and I just kind of wither and die inside, because I know that there's so much QUALITY YA fiction that's available to teens that parents never see, because there's such a surfeit of subpar work like this clogging the shelves.
Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant (4 stars):
Short story anthologies are notably hit or miss -- and I've found that steampunk collections are even more so. This one, however, is one of the strongest collections I've read in some time. Almost every single story was well-crafted, and they each contributed something new to the subgenre, which can be difficult to find in a subgenre already so specific (and one that has become so popular recently in YA fiction). I thought that the two comics were fairly weak, as was the Cassandra Clare story. To balance that out, however, are superb stories by Libba Bray, Kelly Link, Elizabeth Knox, and Delia Sherman.
Getting the Girl by Marcus Zusak (5 stars):
Oh Markus Zusak, I love you. I love you because, despite the fact that I know nothing about you, Cameron Wolfe is so distinctly written in this book that I imagine he has to be you, or some part of you as you were growing up. And he is so gorgeous in his aloneness and his not-okayness that becomes okayness that I have fallen in love with him, which means that I have fallen in love with you.
I love getting a GOOD YA book told from a male point-of-view, and this one doesn't disappoint. There's so much goodness here, about coming of age and family (particularly brotherhood) and love (not just romantic love but also self-love) and self-awareness and being hungry...you just have to read it.
After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn (4 stars):
I thought this was absolutely delightful. Being part of a superhero family but lacking powers will certainly put a strain on family relationships, and Vaughn explores that potential quite well. The action was constantly moving here, and even though I figured out some of the plot twists in advance, I was still engrossed in how Vaughn examined the underlying family and personal issues.
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