Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

5 Stars

Book Rating: PG-13


Language: PG-13 (Exactly two f*cks)

Violence: PG (It's not so much violent as it is intense. This is an intense book)

Sex: PG-13 (Multiple instances of couples having sex. It doesn't explicitly describe it, but you can definitely tell by the "unzips his fly" and something about "her bare thighs")

Drugs/Alcohol: PG (teen smoking, teen drinking. One kid basically is black out drunk)

     This book is absolutely a masterpiece in family literature. The story tells of the Lees, a Chinese-American family in 1977 middle America who have just recently lost their middle and favorite child. This novel weaves together such an important family portrait through words and verbal images alone. 

     This isn't my typical "go to" genre. I don't read family dramas because I have the common misconception that they're "boring." This one kept my interest until the very end due to the emotional ties that I grew with the characters and how the writing crafted a brutally realistic story with short sentences followed by long, lyrical metaphors. 

     The story begins with the line "Lydia is dead." In a way, this could be the end of a story, but instead it begins one and becomes the most central plot to the book. Lydia may be dead, but we as the readers have no idea why. Celeste Ng takes us through the life of the Lee family, starting from the very beginning...back to where it all began with Lydia's parents meeting. As the book jumps back and forth from past to present we get a fuller understanding of why Lydia is dead and what lead to the point where her life finally ended in the lake. 

     This is so fascinating and mesmerizing. I knew absolutely nothing about the family in the beginning, but by the end of the story, I knew them intimately. I knew why Hannah was so quiet, I knew why Marilyn was so restless, I knew why Nath was so distant. It was as if they existed right in my own neighborhood. My mom always told me to never judge someone one on the outside because you never know what goes on behind closed doors. This story exudes this advice. On the surface, the Lee's are just like any other family. But there is so much that goes on once that door closes that others will never see.

     I loved how the book approached the topics of racism, sexism, and even gender norms with absolute grace. It showed the daily struggles of those who had to deal with the racist comments and those who had to deal with sexist attitudes in a realistic and emotionally charged manner. 

     The writing is lyrical and impactful. Every sentence gave me a new type of feeling. There was not one word that felt out of place. There was nothing left unsaid. Beautiful prose. Beautiful storytelling. A beautifully tragic story. It was a journey to be able to walk through this tale of grief and the methods of coping with these characters. 

     This story really is about all the things a family thinks they know about each other and the things that make them realize that things aren't always what they seem. It's about the things they were never able to tell each other and it's about the words left unsaid in light of a sudden loss. 

     This is not a book I'll soon forget. 

"It was too big to talk about, what had happened. It was like a landscape they could not see all at once; it was like the sky at night, which turned and turned so they couldn't find its edges. It would always feel too big."

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Asylum by Madeleine Roux

1 Star

I'm not sure if I can give this book a full rating, seeing as I only got about 50% through before deciding I wouldn't waste another second of my life on this story.

(From 53% through)

Maybe liked PG-13

Language: PG-13 (Uses of d*mn, sh*t, h*ll)

Sex: PG (One character asks another "Did you get any?" in reference to a date)

Violence: PG (I don't know. I guess things happened at the asylum)

Drugs/Alcohol: G

     I found this book at Goodwill and picked it up because, hey, I heard people liked it. Now I know that it was at Goodwill for a very good reason. This is a story about 16 year old Dan Crawford who gets to go to this program for smart kids as they take college classes for 5 weeks. The hitch though is that the kids are housed in an old mental asylum that the college is converting into a dorm. Shenanigans ensue. 

     Usually, I'm very good at reading books until the very end, even if they're terribly hard to get in to. I rarely ever DON'T finish books. I didn't get into Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children until about 120 pages in, but I persevered because I happened to like the characters and I knew it was going somewhere. I could tell from the very first page. However with this book, I disliked it from the very beginning. The book felt like it just wasn't going anywhere. I can't exactly put my finger on why I felt this way, but I just know that I didn't remotely care about where the characters were going and what was going to happen to them.

     I came into this book expecting to read something with a real YA flair. I expected the writing to be more engaging and thoughtful, but instead I got a book that sounded like it was written by twelve-year-olds. These characters are supposed to be the smartest kids in their school year as they prepare to go off to college. Instead, they sounded juvenile. I just wanted to shake them. The writing style came off as boring. It didn't take a lot of thinking. I found my eyes glazing over before I would lose my place. (Then I would just think, oh well. There's literally nothing I'll miss, before going on to the next page).

     From the very start there was not one single character I cared about. Dan was literally the most boring character I've ever read in my life. His friends Abby and what's-his-face weren't much better. (What's-his-face is Jordan. I just looked it up). They're so bad that I forget their names. I feel like there was something that made Dan different from everyone else, but I can't remember for the life of me what that something was. If you don't constantly remind the reader what it is that makes your character tick, they're going to forget it and move on and the character's just going to become Joe Average without any sense of humor or any drive. What makes a good book is having a character that has a goal in mind to achieve. Dan had nothing.

     The plot wasn't good either. It dragged. And it dragged. And it dragged. The author tried to weave mysteries into the chapters and tried to end them on cliffhangers, but honestly...I didn't care. It wasn't engaging enough. It didn't feel real to me. It didn't feel like something that could be going on with real people in real places. There was this whole scene with the Three Musketeers sneaking into a locked office and finding all these old pictures. They were supposed to be creepy. They weren't. Then there was this whole thing with the serial killer which I guess we were supposed to care about. I didn't. And just to add to the mystery, Abby's aunt may or may not have been a resident there. Ooooo. Still don't care. 

     Not to mention that the old pictures through out the book had absolutely nothing to do with anything happening in the chapters. 

     I honestly don't have much more to rant about. I only read through it halfway and I already forget half of what happened, so we'll just end this review here.

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The Mermaid's Sister by Carrie Anne Noble

4 Stars

*Adorable Wyverns named Osbert ahead*

Book Rating: PG

Language: G

Sex: PG (There's an instance where a man is trying to grope the main character. Multiple innuendos by one character-Jasper-towards Clara. Often speaks of "taking her to bed," "making a dishonest woman out of her")

Violence: PG (Caravans are burned down. A horse breaks his leg and is shot. Two other people are shot. A man is physically aggressive towards his wife and son).

Drugs/Alcohol: G 

     Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for a good book with unique historical premises. I succumbed to the story in this book as would be expected. The story follows Clara, her sister Maren the Mermaid, and childhood friend O'Niell. When Maren begins to change, slowly craving salt water more and more, legs slowly fusing together into a tail, Clara and Auntie Verity know Maren must reach the ocean quickly or else she will die. O'Niell and Clara decide to make the journey through the late-1800's east coast to the sea to save Clara's sister.

     I'll get the bad part out of the way first. The reason I'm giving this book four stars is because it was difficult to get into. It was a lot of character and world building without much action. I didn't REALLY start reading until the halfway point. There wasn't much action to get you hooked, but I think that might be the point of the book. It was slow, but more realistic of what could happen to ordinary (or in Maren's case, not so ordinary) people.

     There are so many things I loved about this book, from the late-1800's Appalachian vibes to the unique characterizations thrown in with some mythology. I'm constantly on the search for books that take place in an interesting time of history. Most cover the Victorian Era or World War II (which I love, by the way), so my interest was definitely piqued when the history came from a small mountain town somewhere on the east coast close to the turn of the century, complete with traveling entertainment and caravans with Gypsies and exaggerating salesmen. It was everything I wanted to read about but was never able to find. I loved how one half of the family (Scarff and O'Niell) traveled around all year in a caravan selling their wares only to come home to the mountain for one week every year.

     Not only was the backdrop for the story enchanting, but so were each of the characters. Even the "bad guys." I loved Auntie Verity and Scarff. Both were quirky and clearly in love. The story they told Clara, O'Niell, and Maren of how they came to them by Stork, apple tree, and seashell was enchanting in and of itself. Any child would fall in love with the wonderment of it all. Not to mention the family's pet Wyvern Osbert who is more like a big dog than a dragon. (I mean, he likes to swim around in the fountain in the yard like a cute little dragon puppy).

     The three children (well, teenagers) Clara, Maren, and O'Niell were each unique. I've found that sometimes it's easy for authors to fall into the rut of making every single secondary character extremely well-rounded and interesting but failing to do the same for their main character. This was not the case for Carrie Anne Noble. Clara had a clear sense of her emotions and had just enough spunk to make her feel like a believable teenage girl living up in the mountains in late-1800's America. I really found myself enjoying the voice she had throughout the novel. I believed her despair as she watched her sister slowly disappear day by day and struggle with her love for O'Niell as she watched his obvious affection for Maren. She would undoubtedly be someone I would befriend in real life.

     O'Niell was just as charismatic, if not more. He was sarcastic and witty, yet brave and noble at the same time. Being Scarff's adopted son and traveling around in a caravan selling wares his entire life, he picked up some things along the way. I loved how dramatic he was. He was constantly putting on magic shows for Clara and Maren and constantly entertaining them with his theatrics as he told them stories of his adventures with Scarff.

     As you reach the halfway point in the book, we meet Soraya, Dr. Phipps, and Jasper again. By far, Jasper was the one who made me think the most. He was interesting...a little complex. He was flirtatious and likable, but every once in awhile you would see this dark side that he kept well hidden. Even when he's being kind, I always got this creepy crawly feeling. He was well written. I won't spoil anything, but he really kept me reading.

     On top of the excellent characterization, the writing style was poised and elegant. I'd almost compare it to Maggie Stiefvater's in The Raven Boys just a little more personal in a strange way. It had a lot more emotion is each sentence. But first person always feels more personal anyway.

     Ultimately, this is a book about friendship and family and when faced with adversity, what one would do to save the person they love most in the world.

"There is no word for the emotion between pity and love, or for the one between longing and sorrow. Just as words cannot describe what I feel right now, something between envy and shame, and between compassion and disappointment."

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That Boy by Jillian Dodd

JJ REYNOLDS IS THE LITERAL WORST

1.5 Stars

Book Rating: PG-13

Language: PG-13 (Multiple uses of sh*t, one f*ck, multiple d*mn, h*ll)

Sex: PG-13 (Things get pretty steamy on several occasions between the characters. No actual descriptions of the "act," just a lot of making out)

Violence: PG (one guy gets a black eye. There's a pretty traumatic car crash that we don't actually witness as the reader but we're there for the aftermath)

Drugs/Alcohol: PG-13 (Tons of underage drinking. I'm wondering if that's all these kids do. Lots of talk of getting completely hammered and the main character talks about getting drunk and being taken advantage of by a boy)

     This book follows the journey of JJ (Jadyn) Reynolds from fourth grade into adulthood. I thought this was an interesting premise because you don't usually find 300 page books that cover such a huge span of time.

     You know, I enjoyed the plot of this book. It was a quick read and had an interesting storyline, as in following a main character for twelve years. The writing was simple which I hope will get me out of my reading rut and into reading something more complex. I liked watching the three main characters grow up together. I thought it was an interesting dynamic. 

     The real downer for me in his book was that JJ was the most immature, whiny, arrogant, entitled little worm. I like her POV's when she was in elementary school through ninth grade because the things she thought and how she spoke were absolutely believable. I could see myself in her 7th grade POV. But as she gets older, I don't see her mature at all. She's snotty and bratty and her only thoughts are about how she's going to get drunk this weekend and hook up with this guy because he's a total smoke show. She just didn't have any depth. The only time I was able to see her as a real human being was when she was out playing football with Danny and Phillip and when she was crying on her parents' bed. She was just SO shallow. She's got a new guy every month, makes out with whoever she likes...I just....She was always talking about how she would never be one of those girls who always croons over the boys and how hot they are, BUT THAT'S LITERALLY ALL SHE DOES. 

     Honestly, the downside to this book was just JJ and the writing (SO BAD, SO JUVENILE) which would amount to JJ's thoughts. So really JJ was the only thing to drag this book down into the depths of Hell. 

     I was okay with both our secondary main characters, Danny and Phillip. Both had different personalities that really made the book a lot easier to read. But they were both just f-boys. I loved the relationship the three of them had together and how easy their relationship was. Danny was the football star, playboy, sweet, devious one and Phillip was the smart, caring, grounding, think-before-you-act one. Both of their dynamics with JJ were interesting. (Lol. If only I liked her). 

     I can say though, this author really knows how to write chemistry. I mean, Danny and JJ's chemistry was through the roof. Like those two were like actual electricity together. I loved reading their chapters. I feel like JJ was more believable and human as well when she's with Danny. I feel like if she was hanging out with him throughout the book, I would like her better. (Now if only the writing were better and JJ didn't sound like a 12 year old 24/7).

     There is one thing that REALLY bothered me about this book though. I felt like, especially in the college years, things started getting a little uncomfortable to read. JJ would go on and on about getting drunk and finding someone to take advantage of her. There was this one line which really disturbed me. I don't know if the author is just uneducated on how these things may sound to people who are very aware of how rape culture works nowadays but she turned this line into something JJ found "sexy."

"You know I haven't quite figured out if I should attack you or go into business with you." 

     This is said while at a college party where things are getting pretty heated between JJ and an older student. They're drinking. She's already pretty intoxicated and girls are being told that they're worth nothing if they don't get down and dirty with one of the boys at the party. It just rubbed me the wrong way. A lot of what JJ said rubbed me the wrong way as she talked about hoping to get taken advantage of and "going up to his room where he could have his way with me." I don't know. I feel like it was just classless with no concern for people that have actually gone through this and experienced something where someone just "had their way" with them.

     If you want a quick read with not much substance, this is the book for you. If you're not a fan of that, move on to bigger and better things. I know I will.

     "I sigh big." (pg. 208) <---A clear example of the terrible writing

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