Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favorite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world.

But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pup with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he walked away from Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle’s death.

In a year when everything’s broken, Tom realizes that his family and friends need him to help put the pieces back together as much as he needs them.

Thomas Mackee feels as if he has nothing left to live for. His family is split apart; he no longer communicates with his closes friends and almost lost everything if not for the compassion of those friends he cut off. For as much as Tom seems to hate the world, the further we go along and find that Tom is struggling with hating himself. After an event that leaves him in hospital, Tom ends up pleading with his Aunt Georgie to let him stay. A decision that eventually puts Tom on the path to who he really wants to be.

Georgie is pregnant. To the man she broke up with for seven years. Who has a son from another relationship. Georgie and Sam have a careful relationship. What it is neither can really decide or talk about. For Georgie and Sam, silence is normal. Until Tom appears and unintentionally creates a channel for communication, and Georgie and Sam might have a chance to finally work out exactly what they mean to each other.

Francesca and Justine work at the Union pub, the pub where Tom’s flatmates stole $2000 from while they were working there. Tom decides that it is up to him to repay the debt. Francesca and Justine knew Tom through high school, and were cast aside when Tom lost his uncle, yet they never stopped caring. Slowly, Francesca and Justine find that they are getting their Tom back, and will do everything they can to help Tom return to who he used to be.

But Tom doesn’t only have his own life to worry about. His father is a former alcoholic whose drinking problem forced Tom’s mum and sister to relocate to Brisbane. His father abandoned Tom to fend for himself, and never once looked back. His favourite uncle was killed in a terrorist bombing attack, the one person Tom relied on for good, true, honest advice. His sort-of ex-girlfriend that he is still in love with is in Same and has moved on, refusing to communicate in any form.

In a life where everything seems so tangled, will Tom be able to work out, what it is he truly wants before it is too late?

The Piper’s Son is the fifth novel from Australian author Melina Marchetta, and is set five years after the events of Saving Francesca. Yet, it is not necessary to have read Saving Francesca to understand the story, as believe it or not, this is the first Marchetta novel that I have read. That may come as a surprise to some who knows Marchetta’s work, but I now know why Marchetta is regarded as one of the best young adult authors in Australia.

The Piper’s Son was one of the most captivating and engaging books I have read this year. I could not get the characters out of my head, constantly wanting to pick up the book and find out what happens next. Through the perspective of Tom and occasional flashes into the mind of Georgie, I’ve discovered two characters that I care about. Tom is troubled and flawed, needing love and acceptance, even if sometimes he shrugs it off and pretends like nothing can tough him. Georgie is that aunt that you wish you have – caring enough to let you stay when you have nowhere else to go and perceptive enough to know that something is wrong, even if you don’t want to talk about it. From the beginning of the novel where nothing goes right for either Tom or Georgie, to the end where you find that maybe, just maybe they can make their lives work in a positive way; you are there with them, each step and failure along the way. Failure that reminds you that they are just a human as anyone else.

Set in a modern day Sydney with references and mentions to recent events from everything to the Lord of the Rings to the London terrorist attacks, Marchetta has created a world that is gritty and instantly believable and recognisable as a world that we belong to.

I highly recommend this to everyone, no matter the style of novel you like to read.

Publication date: March 2010

Pages: 328

Rating::

Teaser quote: He went to the sent box praying that somehow the email got rejected. No such luck. Twenty seconds earlier anabelsbrother sent taramarie a message, now with the words cheers, or see ya, or whenever. But signing off with the word, love.

As if being a purrfect cheerleader isn’t enough responsibility! Tessa Crimson’s the sweet and spunky leader of the SOS (Society of Smitten Kittens), a cheer squad–turned–spy society dedicated to bringing dastardly boyfriends to justice, one cheater at a time. Boyfriend-busting wouldn’t be so bad . . . except that so far, every suspect on the Naughty List has been proven 100% guilty!

When Tessa’s own boyfriend shows up on the List, she turns her sleuthing skills on him. Is Aiden just as naughty as all the rest, or will Tessa’s sneaky ways end in catastrophe?

The Naughty List. Is your boyfriend on it?

Meet the Smitten Kittens. Sounds kind of sexy, huh? Alluring in that mysterious way. If you knew what they were doing, though, sexy wouldn’t even come into it. In fact, the Smitten Kittens are all about busting cheating boyfriends from doing the sexy with people other than their other half. The male adolescent population of Washington High is more than a little naughty, it seems.

The squad – which double as a cheer squad by day – have high tech spy equipment and have a well organized system of spying on the boys at their school. They take requests from girlfriends who suspect their boyfriends are cheating, and investigate till the allegations are either cleared, or confirmed. Unfortunately, they’ve never had the opportunity to clear anyone’s name because every single suspect has been found guilty. Every single one.

Tessa is the only girl left on the squad who actually has a boyfriend. Over time, the others all dumped theirs because they were caught cheating. Then, Tessa’s boyfriend’s name shows up on the list, and with a one hundred percent confirmed cheating rate so far, it isn’t looking good for Tessa and Aiden. But maybe he’s innocent, he seems like a nice guy, after all. Could he be the first boyfriend to ever be cleared of all charges?

Initially, I couldn’t decide exactly how I felt about this book, or for whom exactly the target audience might be. Tessa comes across as a good, wholesome character. She doesn’t curse, and always corrects those around her that do. She uses expressions like strawberry smoothie, for example, instead of actual curse words. She’s an excellent friend to her fellow squad members, a great student, and an all-round shiny, happy girl. At first I thought this was going to be a clean and wholesome novel for younger readers, but then I discovered that Tessa sleeps with her boyfriend and sneaks around in the middle of the night, lying to her parents and Aiden about what she’s doing, and spies on people till dawn. And Tessa is the only one that doesn’t curse; it seems the book is littered with swear words and over active adolescent hormonal activity. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, either, I’m just saying that Tessa’s character confused me.

I found myself trying to decode the messages that came attached to Tessa’s character. By creating a character like Tessa, is Suzanne Young is attempting to send a message that teen sex is okay? After all, Tessa is a really nice girl that is seemingly good in every other way. Does the fact that she’s sexually active make her a bad role model for teen girls? I really couldn’t decide. I’m inclined to say no, but I felt uncomfortable making that judgement alone. What I did like about Tessa is that, especially at the beginning, she is committed to Aiden and although she is well aware of her sexual allure and uses that on Aiden a lot, she doesn’t really flounce it around in front of everyone else. She isn’t promiscuous and she obviously has a lot of self-respect, which I think is important when setting up a potential role model for teens today.

The whole book left me feeling a little uneasy, which I suppose is actually a good thing because I thought about it for hours after I finished it, trying to figure out whether I liked it, how to categorize it, what the underlying messages were. While there was obviously a formula that went into the plot, it seemed there was a lack of formula that went into creating the characters, setting, tone, etc. I found this quite refreshing and I think others will too.

I think this book would be a great jumping point for book clubs and discussion circles that wanted to talk and debate the issue of teen sex and teen relationships.

Pages: 239

Publication Date: Febraury 2010

Rating::

Teaser Quote: Cassandra was less than thrilled to see the glossy eight by tens of Marcus and Red Heels. It nearly broke my heart, especially when I considered her recently departed virginity. All of it left me feeling, well, bummed.

The truth changes everything.

Dear Leonardo,

Truth is important in art, don’t you think?

Truth is important full stop.

Matt

It’s Matt Hudson’s fifteenth birthday and all he wants is some art lessons. Instead, he gets a card from his dead mother. How can someone who died ten years ago send you a card?

Simple answer – they can’t.

This awful truth changes Matt’s life forever.

On the morning of your fifteenth birthday you think it would be a happy situation and a reason to celebrate. Not for Matt Hudson. For Matt, it’s the 10^th reminder that his mother isn’t here to wish him a happy birthday, that it’s just him and his father, Dave, who will probably not even remember and will make up for it with pizza for dinner.

Or that’s how Matt thought it would go.

He wasn’t expecting a card. Especially a card from his mother that is supposed to be dead. Suddenly Matt’s world is turned upside down. Was it just his imagination? Someone’s idea of a practical joke? For Matt can find no record of her anywhere. Relatives refuse to talk about her, no records of any kind linked to the name and a search on Google doesn’t even bring up anything with her name. After all, Zara Templeton isn’t exactly a common name.

Except for a bible found in his Dad’s draw with her name on it, Zara has all but disappeared.

Yet as Matt digs deeper, there are records of Zara. Except she calls herself Zora now. There are mentions of her as an artist. Matt even sees one of her paintings and knows for sure that this has to be his mother. For where else would he have got his talent and interest in art except from his mother?

As Matt discovers more, the anger in him builds. Anger at being lied to for 10 years of his life. Anger at events that took his mother out of his life, but above all, anger at his father for pretending like nothing is wrong, that he hasn’t just created one big lie. For what could make a father lie to his son about his mother?

Dave had his reasons. For Zora would abandon Matt as a child – leave him in shopping centers and home alone for days on end. Zora suffers from bipolar. And she refuses to take medication on the basis that it limits her creative ability.

At first Matt doesn’t believe him. And as events get more and more out of control, risking everything and everyone he loves, Matt comes to realise that maybe his father was right. But will Matt understand before he loses the one person who has stuck by him through thick and thin?

Letters to Leonardo is the moving story of how one family comes to terms with the biggest changes in their life and how it affects both them and those around them. Dee White’s debut novel is oddly compelling and real. The voice of Matt is so strong and true that you feel the confusion and the indecision that Matt feels, and his struggle to understand and deal with the events that has unfolded in his life. White provides an inside into a topic that isn’t often spoken about in ways that can be identified with and understood.

Pages: 246

Publication date: 2009

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Teaser quote: You were little. It was for your own good. I had to protect you…

What happens when your life doesn’t go according to plan?

Ryden Malby had a plan. Step One: Do will in high school, thereby achieving Step Two: Get a college scholarship. Step Three: Limit her beer intake in order to keep said scholarship (which wasn’t always easy). Now that she’s finally graduated, it’s time for Step Four: Move into a gorgeous loft apartment and land her dream job at the city’s best publishing house. So far, Ryden’s been three-for-three, but she’s about to stumble on Step Four…

When Jessica Bard, Ryden’s college nemesis – the prettiest, smartest, most ambitious girl at school – steals her perfect job, Ryden’s forced to move back to her childhood home. Stuck with her eccentric family – a stubborn do-it-yourself dad, an overly thrifty mom, a politically incorrect grandma, a very odd little brother – and a growing stack of rejected job applications, Ryden starts to feel like she’s going nowhere. The only upside is spending time with her best friend, Adam – and running into her hot next-door neighbour, David. But if Ryden’s going to survive life as a post grad, it may be time to come up with a new plan…

Ryden Malby seems to be on the up. College scholarship, best friend that she has known forever, and promising prospects at top publishing firm Happerman and Browning. It’s The Plan after all. Moving away from home and an eccentric family that Ryden wishes she weren’t related too is all Ryden has ever wanted. It’s graduation day, and if she can get through the ceremony without some form of disaster, tomorrow will be the start of her new life.

And to being with, everything seems to be going great. Until Adam, her best friend who is driving her to look at the gorgeous loft apartment and to her interview crashes. From there everything seems to fall apart. Being beat out for the dream job but perfect, valedictorian college classmate Jessica, being denied the keys to the apartment, Ryden is forced back to the last place she ever wants to be – home.

Facing countless months of un-employment when she can’t even keep a job at her own father’s luggage store, Ryden feels that nothing will ever be right again. A small light in that future however is David – her older and hotter next-door neighbour. Scoring her a small job as an assistant on the set of the commercials that he directs, Ryden finally feels like she has some to talk to. That is, until she messes up again, angering Adam to the point that he decides to take the offer of a law course in New York. Completely on the opposite side of the continent to Ryden, and it seems no amount of apologies will get Adam to talk to Ryden.

In a world with plans go off track, Ryden must work out exactly what it is she wants, and what she is willing to give up to get it.

Post Grad by Emily Cassel is adapted from the screenplay of recent movie release of the same name, starring Alexis Bledel. I haven’t seen the movie from which the novel was adapted, but I have it on good authority that it was a fun, easy film to watch. Shame that the same can’t be said from the novel. I found the plot weak and that the characters lacked development over the course of the events. Nothing ever happened for a reason, things just happened. With an entirely predictable ending, there was nothing in this book that really got me caring about what actually happened to Ryden.

The most notable parts of the book were Ryden’s eccentric family. They at least, made it interesting to read – their bizarre and somewhat random acts breaking up the monotony of the rest of the plot.

To me, Post Grad was a concept that had a lot of potential, but was poorly executed in terms of plot and character development.

Pages: 243

Publication date: America 2009, Australia 2010

Rating::

Teaser quote: If you ever truly want to be stared at, try driving down Wilshire Boulevard in your mother’s pink Le Baron with an enormous, half-shattered coffin strapped to the roof.

Her friends once thought she was perfect. Now she must face the mirror–and herself–to discover what true beauty is.

Ellie Summerfield has everything a girl could want–she’s beautiful, she’s Senior Class President, has a calendar full of social engagements, volunteer commitments, and church activities. In short, she’s perfect, according to most of the students at West Redding High School. But something is bothering Ellie, like a loose string on a dress she can feel but can’t see. Does she really love her boyfriend, Ryan? Who are her true friends? And is she really happy in her picture-perfect life?

Then in the course of a few minutes, the loose string in Ellie’s life completely unravels. Forever changed, she must face herself as she discovers what it really means to be beautiful.

Ellie is that girl. You know the one I mean: the one with the hot boyfriend; the one with the flawless grades; the one that everyone admires; the one that is most likely to succeed in life. There’s one in every school, and although you’d love to hate her, there just isn’t anything about her to hate.

But then something happens, something bad. Ellie and her friend Stasia are involved in a car accident. Ellie suffers a lot of injuries and winds up in the hospital with severe burns to one side of her body.

Stasia doesn’t even make it out of the car alive.

The doctors assure Ellie, that after a few years and a whole lot of surgery, that she’ll recover and the scarring will almost definitely disappear. But a few years is a long time to walk through life looking like a mutant, and suddenly Ellie decides there is plenty about herself that’s worthy of hating.

In a fit of depression, she cuts herself off from her friends. Every single one of them, including her boyfriend, Ryan. She’s no longer beautiful, so what’s even the point?

Ellie spirals further and further into a pool of depression and self-pity until one day, an old friend from way back in her past, someone that she sees as imperfect and flawed in his own way, walks back into her life.

Will has always had a crush on Ellie, even when they were little kids, and nothing has changed now. Just because her face isn’t the same as it used to be, doesn’t make her any less beautiful, in his eyes. For Will, beauty isn’t something that’s just on the outside. For Will, beauty comes from within.

Will he be able to save Ellie before she hits the bottom of the barrel? You’ll have to read for yourself to find out.

Although Ellie’s horrible self-pity was hard to endure, it was not unrealistic. As a character, I found the way she responded to the events and issues thrown at her to be very believable. I felt sorry for Ryan and her friends when Ellie simply cast them aside, but I never once thought that she was being unfair, or that her character was unrealistic.
Of all the characters within Beautiful, I admired Will and Ryan the most. Although Ellie pushed Ryan away with everything she had, he never stopped loving her, and just like Will, believed that her beauty went far deeper than the scars on her face.

A solid read that I’m sure the girls will love.

Pages: 266

Publication Date: 2009

Rating::

“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.”

So says Titus, a teenager whose ability to read, write, and even think for himself has been almost completely obliterated by his “feed,” a transmitter implanted directly into his brain. Feeds are a crucial part of life for Titus and his friends. After all, how else would they know where to party on the moon, how to get bargains at Weatherbee & Crotch, or how to accessorize the mysterious lesions everyone’s been getting? But then Titus meets Violet, a girl who cares about what’s happening to the world and challenges everything Titus and his friends hold dear. A girl who decides to fight the feed.

When I first saw Feed mentioned in Maggie Stiefvater’s ‘Top Twelve Books of 2009’, I knew that I had to read this novel. (For those who don’t know, Maggie is the author of Shiver) What gripped me from the first page of this novel is the sense of grim reality. This isn’t a novel where everything is carefully scripted, it’s honest and raw. Dialogue and thought coming from a place that strikes me as real. Through every thought of Titus I got a sense of being completely in over my head, struggling to find meaning of events taking place. Which, I believe, is exactly the response author M. T. Anderson was looking for.

Feed opens with a group of friends on spring break who have decided to take off to the moon to find entertainment. But the moon isn’t exactly what they expected. They run into Violet, who for all appearances is as average and normal as the rest of them. Except for the fact she was home-schooled and needs to live a little. Yet everything doesn’t run smoothly on the moon. For Titus and his friends become the subjects of a hacker, resulting in their feeds being disconnected, leaving them shut off from the world. Imagine having the internet permanently accessible to you, then suddenly it’s gone. Yet this internet is the basis of everything. Communication, human contact. The world.

All too soon – or not soon enough depending on your point of view – the technicians of FeedTech have fixed the problem and Titus, Violet and their friends can continue on with their normal life as American consumers. However one member of this group doesn’t have it as easy as the rest. Even before the hack, Violet was about defying the feed. About not conforming to society. Testing the boundaries to see how far she can push. And her limit may have just arrived, for her feed hasn’t recovered the same as everyone else’s. Slowly, Violet is losing control of her most basic functions and without the money to fund repairs, Violet and Titus know that she only has a short amount of time to live.

With not enough time to do anything, Violet tries to do everything. Yet underneath it all there is still her belief in fighting the system. Her belief that there is something more out there than the average American. But can she communicate this to Titus in a way he can understand before it’s too late?

I’ve always measure novels in terms of how well I can get lost in the story. Feed is one that had me completely lost in the story. Anderson wove a story that was so compelling and so real. This isn’t a fantasy or alternate universe with different rules. It’s a grim look at a future possible reality. The ‘feeds’ which is the subject matter of a large portion of the novel is a highly advanced internet interface which is installed in your brain – it takes over everything from breathing and moving and completely removes the necessity of reading. It categories and records everything you do, building a profile of you used by American corporations. It is a place that we could very well be heading. A scary and controlling place. And through this, we have Violet who is fighting for a better world, a world where youth don’t live in ignorance of what is happening outside of their suburb, where youth remember the history of the past and what the world used to be like. It is Violet who made this novel all the more real, as she tries to break from society.

This is just one of those novels that needs to be read. At the core, one girls emotional and physical struggle to change the world, seen through the eyes of one that struggles and fails to break free of the constraints of society.

A warning to younger readers, frequent coarse language does occur.

Pages: 300

Publication date: 2004

Rating::

When she is exiled to Los Angeles to spend two weeks with her dad – whom she knows mainly from a bunch of postcards – Katy figures she’ll smile politely and then bury her head in a book. But Katy’s dad is the Rat, the drummer for the infamous band Suck. Thrust into the city’s punk rock scene, Katy finds it hard to be so nice, especially with doom-and-gloom Lake, her father’s idea of a chaperone, ordering her around. Katy could let it all out like everyone else – pound on the skins and the cymbals, shout and scream onstage – but music is dangerous and Katy isn’t that kind of girl. So what kind of girl is she?

Katy and her mom are a team. They’ve always done everything together – everything. So when Katy’s mom tells her that she’s going on a research trip without her, Katy can hardly believe it. She really can’t believe it when she learns that she’s being shipped off to L.A for two weeks to stay with her dad.

The Rat aint going to be winning any prizes for Father Of The Year any time soon. He’s barely had anything to do with Katy her whole life. He tried to cross the border into Canada to see her once, but he got kicked out for life for attempting to carry drugs into the country. That’s the kind of guy he was – the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll type. He may have kicked the drugs and the booze now, but rock ‘n’ roll is something you just can’t kick. For The Rat, rock ‘n’ roll is in his blood. There is no living if you’re living a rockless life. He may still drum for a living, but he’s clean now and The Rat is determined to show Katy that he’s just a normal guy who wants a relationship with his only kid. As normal as any punk rock drummer can be, anyway.

But Katy isn’t having it. No sir. Why would she bother? He got her mom hooked on drugs. He was never there for her, ever. Apart from the fact that he’s the drummer in a pretty successful L.A based punk band, she barely knows anything about this guy. Why does she have to play the father-daughter game now?

Then she finds out that she has to stay for the whole summer, instead of the intended two weeks. Oh man. What a freaking nightmare.

I swear, my heart goes out to The Rat. He really does try and make a good go of it with Katy, but their lives are so different, so disconnected, that bumpy times are unavoidable. Katy could use a bit of a slap around the ears if you ask me. I think her reasons for being so bitter are genuine, I really do, but is all the whining really necessary? In a very fifteen-year-oldesque manner, Katy finds the darkness, the terrible, in absolutely everything. Having said that, I’m actually pretty glad that Beige was written through Katy’s perspective rather than anyone else’s. I identify with her more than any other character – crazy, unbearable whining aside. I enjoyed her journey a whole lot, and towards the end I actually felt a little excited about her triumph. The kid learns to loosen up a little and see life for what it really is - life. This isn’t a happy-go-lucky read, but it certainly left me feeling good.

If you’re into a bit of punk rock, then I think you’ll get an extra kick out of this one. The chapters are titled with awesome rocking song titles and punk rock references pepper the pages of this contemporary read. When the book kicks off, Katy’s affiliation with music or punk rock is zippo. Nada. Zilch. She knows nothing music, and doesn’t want to know anything either. But as her personal journey is carved out in the pages of this story, so is her musical education. At the back of the novel, Castellucci has compiled a playlist of punk rock tracks that Katy – I’m assuming the Katy that emerges at the end, rather than the beginning – gets down and rocks out to. I had a whole lot of fun downloading and listening to her journey, as well as reading the words on the page.

Beige is like any good punk rock song should be – dirty, angry, and straight to the point. Cecil Castellucci will rock your socks off with this one.

Rating :

Can changing places change their lives?

Two girls on opposite sides of the globe both want a quick getaway. The answer? They switch places through a last minute global exchange program. The catch? It’s a direct swap. They swap classes, accommodation and universities. No exceptions. Feminist political theory for film studies. On-camps accommodation for an share-apartment. A university where attendance is expected to one that doesn’t take a roll.

Tasha’s life seems to be coming to pieces. After the disastrous ‘hot-tub incident’, Tasha’s parents wont even talk to her. She can’t go anywhere without being recognised – for all the wrong reasons. She’s desperate to get out. To go anywhere. Emily thought she was on-track. Every aspect planned until she is dumped by her boyfriend for being too studious and up-tight. Every step of her life has been because it is the right decision for the future. The future that her parents what for her. Until now.

Tasha winds up in Oxford, England. Not something you would expect of a typical beach going, class-skipping and all round party girl from America. Finding herself wadding Ugg-deep in feminist theory, Tasha just wants people to see her for who she really is. Not who they all think she is. Yet when the whole university seems out to get her for her rather different views on feminism, blending in seems to be an impossible feat. Emily heads to the University of California, Santa Barbara. Suddenly she is in a world that is the opposite of organisation, planning and preparation. From a class size of three to a lecture hall of 200, Emily is in for a semester of film critiquing, script re-writing and filming. However, her ‘English’ image of perfection and organisation seems to be alienating the rest of the student body against her.

Before long, the two girls make contact from opposite sides of the globe, each offering the other tips and strategies on how to fit in, navigate the difficulty of love and figuring out who they really want to be. Can Tasha and Emily help each other before they each make the best or worst mistake of their lives?

First off, I loved this book. It was extremely well-written and captivating from the first page until the end. Life Swap is debut novel from Abby McDonald, who is a recent graduate of Oxford University providing an excellent platform to satire the collage experience. McDonald’s spin on what could have potentially be seen as stereotypical characters gave a fresh new insight into the way different cultures work and operate against each other. The language choices are fresh and real – McDonald knows how to talk in the language of a teenager, and it transfers into the truth and reality conveyed in Life Swap. With interesting plot developments for both characters and an equal division of both characters story, McDonald manages to create two diverse universe’s that operate in sync with each other. For me, the characters where real people that I could relate to.

I saw a reflection of myself in both Tasha and Emily’s actions, and were able to relate to the choices and situations that both characters found themselves in. From Tasha trying to re-gain some sense of pride and belief in herself after a past mistake that the world wouldn’t forget, to Emily trying to let loose and relinquish her almost obsessive-compulsive to have everything this in her life organised. Emily’s defiance of her parents in the face of, for once, choosing to do what she wants and the events that influence this decision was an interesting look for me, and I feel that many young adults who read this book will relate to it in the same way.

Life Swap was a joy of an adventure that had you laughing, crying and cringing with every decision made.

Rating::

“How do choose between the things you love?”

Meet Ella. Her world has just been turned upside down when her parents decided to move their whole family interstate. Gone is downtown Melbourne, her dance studio, best friend and boyfriend, and hello Newcastle, where the town lives by the daily surf report, everyone knows everyone and her mother is apparently a local legend. Everyone seems to be adjusting; even her crazier-than-normal sister Creaky, yet Ella can’t help but long for her home town, where everything has its place and where she knows what is expected of her.

Nothing will replace the life in Melbourne, but as Ella starts to settle in and see the beauty of her surroundings, Newcastle may just come close. School brings new opportunities for Ella, new friends, new surroundings, new people who have no idea who Ella is. As she settles into the life in Newcastle, Ella finds what she was missing, a new dance studio, close friends and as Ella begins to accept her new life, her conflicted feelings of missing her old life but enjoying her new one start to play out. At the forefront of this is Jamie, her ex-but-still-kind-of-together boyfriend from Melbourne. Ella and Jamie never really broke it off, and when Ella starts to become close to talented surfer and fellow classmate Snowy, tensions between Ella and Jamie start to climb.

Unable to resist the lure of the surf, Ella becomes completely entrenched in the surfing culture of the town. Mornings are spent at the beach, afternoon’s training, and every second of free time is somehow related to surfing – documentaries, magazines and the all important surf report. All through this, Ella hears whispers of her mother’s former surfing ability, yet before the move, Ella and Creaky were un-aware that their mother even liked the beach, let alone spent enough time there to be considered a surfing legend.

As Ella struggles to find a balance between surfing and dancing, the question must be asked, and Ella needs to make the biggest decision that could very well change the course of her life forever.

Surf Ache is debut novel from Australian writer Gerry Bobsien, a resident of Newcastle. As a first novel, it is something fresh and new in the young adult genre. I’m yet to read a novel on surfing that I got to the end of, this being the first. However, I felt that there was room for much deeper character development and exploration, as with some of the characters their decisions and actions lacked believability for me. I felt that there was too much covered in the way of events, without a definite conclusion. That being said, this novel could be setting up to a possible sequel. I personally would have loved to see more of Creaky and Luke, as I felt this story arch was set up then forgotten towards the end of the novel, but that could be me and my love of wacky characters! Overall, an enjoyable and light read that kept me occupied and reading to the end.

Rating::

Pyromania: A mental derangement, excitement or excessive enthusiasm for fire.
Having celebrity parents isn’t as hot as it sounds. Yes, there’s money to burn, fame and some totally smoking guys…But when your dad’s more interested in blazing a trail to the top of the charts than why you got kicked out of school, again, it can make you seriously angry. And if there’s one thing Ember knows, it’s that the smallest spark of anger can ignite a whole heap of trouble…

Ember has the whole teen angst thing going for her. You see, her mother died a little while ago and her father … well, he’s never around much. He’s famous and so is his new wife – Ember’s step mother – and they both live in L.A. Ember doesn’t. Ember lives in London. At a boarding school. Until she gets kicked out. Why did she get kicked out? Well, they don’t call her Ember for no reason…

So she’s shipped to the US for the summer and embarks on a unintentional journey of self discovery. And what better way to help you learn more about yourself than a summer fling. This is a summer fling with a twist, though, and readers should prepare themselves for a nasty twist. Nothing is as it seems and Ember is about to learn the biggest lesson so far. Is a loved-up resolution imminent? Maybe, maybe not. That’s something you’ll need to read and figure out for yourself.

Ember Fury has something going for it that not a lot of other young adult releases do: it’s a mash of prose and pictures, coupled together to tell the story. Like comics or graphic novels? Then I reckon you’re going to love this book. While not strictly a graphic novel, Ember Fury is what I like to call an illustrated novel. The pictures don’t tell the story, but they certainly add a new dimension to the way the characters are perceived, while adding humor and a light-heartedness to all the drama. The illustrations are outstanding, and without them, this novel wouldn’t stand as tall as it does.

Will Ember’s journey take her to a place of good, or will it push her back into a deeper pit of darkness? Get ready for a roller-coaster ride of troubled teen angst at its best.

While the story is a little on the predictable side, the whole concept of the novel isn’t. I reckon that this one is going to be interesting enough that readers will want to check it out – and you should. It’s definitely worth a look in.

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Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.

After Katniss and Peeta won the Hunger Games, their lives changed forever. They’re now totally loaded, for one, and Katniss and her mother and sister moved out of their old shack into newer, more desirable living quarters in District 12. That means no more scavenging just to make ends meet; no more hunting for food; no more cold showers. They’ve got everything they could possibly need in the district. Everything except freedom, that is.

Even though they’re home, the Capitol still controls their every move. It’s less obvious at first, and life assumes some kind of normality for Katniss and Peeta for a little while. But then the Quarter Quell is announced – another version of the Hunger Games – and Katniss, Peeta and Hamish find themselves in the middle of another Capitol scheme to ensure complete and utter control over all citizens everywhere.

But the people aren’t having it, and those with enough guts and manpower are revolting against the Capitol’s regime – and they’re using Katniss as their inspiration. If Katniss can defy the capitol in the arena, like she did with the berries, then they can too. If Katniss can manipulate the Capitol through her ‘relationship’ with Peeta, then surely they could find a way to do the same. Their freedom, their quality of life depends on it. Katniss hopes like hell they do, because in the meantime, her and Peeta are the Capitol’s pawns. They have to do what the Capitol wants, or they risk the lives of the people they love.

Love.

It’s certainly an issue that is dealt with in Catching Fire. Although he seems to have accepted that Katniss’s affections for him in the arena were fabricated, Peeta still loves Katniss. And it’s not that Katniss doesn’t feel for Peeta, it’s just that she feels for another, too. Does she love Gale? It’s clear that Gale loves her. It seems no matter whom she chooses, someone she cares about is going to suffer. Then the Capitol picks up on to Katniss’s little dilemma and interfere in a way that makes life almost impossible for her. Can’t choose? No problem. Katniss’s choice is made for her…

After the hugely popular The Hunger Games, I bet a whole stack of you have the Mount Everest of expectations for Catching Fire. No problem. Suzanne Collins takes those expectations, stamps all over them, and proves that she’s a force to be reckoned with.

Her prose is effortless and her characters shine brightly in a world of chaos. Katniss is brave, logical, and she certainly has her priorities in order. When the going gets tough, she doesn’t forget what the important things in life are. She’s an outstanding role model for teenagers everywhere.

You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll gasp, and your heart will break. I can’t wait for the third book. Pity the release date is so far away!

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In the beginning there was me and Mum and Dad and the twins. And talk about happy families, we were bountiful . But it came to pass. And then I started doing sins. And lo, that’s when all our problems began.

I know I’m stating the obvious here, but this is the new book by Morris Gleitzman. Although Morris isn’t technically Australian, he emigrated here when he was young, so I think its safe for us to claim him as our own now, and at the moment I’m feeling kind of proud to do so. For those of you that don’t know who Morris is, I feel the need to ask what kind of rock you’ve been living under for the last, oh, I don’t know, forever? (Especially if you’re Australian). I used to read him when I was young and I’m incredibly happy that I decided to read his new book, Grace. Although I’d argue it’s targeted at an audience that is slightly younger than we usually cater for, I reckon this is the kind of book that all readers will be able to get into.

Meet Grace: daughter, sister, inquisitive student, and completely devoted to God. So devoted to God it’s not even funny. After being inside her head for just a few pages, I realised that this story was going to be loaded with religious values/ideals/blah blah blah – and that is not something I really enjoy reading about. But thankfully, I persisted, and I learned a whole lot from Grace.

When Grace’s father is expelled from their cult/church (referred to by Grace herself as a “special” kind of Christianity) Grace thinks it’s her fault. I mean, she did get off the school bus to check and see if the people in the van they hit were okay, she did ask too many questions, and she did interrupt prayer at school. Maybe if she hadn’t done these things, he’d still be allowed to live with them. After setting out on a mission to find her dad and bring him home, Grace begins to realise that her father’s expulsion really wasn’t her fault. She starts to see that the men of her church, particularly her grandfather, might be manipulating the situation more than she first understood.

Will Grace be able to show her mother the truth, prove her father’s innocence and save her family? Sounds like a helluva burden for such a small kid to carry, but everyone knows that sometimes, adults can be total morons and only the genius of the child mind can save a the day.

If you’re into seriously fanatical religion, then I’d stay away from this book, especially if your breed of fanaticism dances in Christianity’s court. I think the only reason I was able to stomach all the religious fodder in this story was because it totally demonised it. Having said that, I think its safe to admit that I totally loved this book! Grace is an awesome character whose initiative, dedication, and inquisitive mind set her up as a noble heroine worthy of admiration by all. For someone who has spent her entire life in a brainwashed bubble of Christian poo, Grace accepts the truth about her circumstances with the maturity of someone much older than her years. If it were me, I’d be in all kinds of denial. But she was believable in every single way; I never once found myself thinking that her choices or her thoughts were unrealistic.

What really scared me about this story was just how impressionable the human mind can be. The community members that are part of Grace’s church are brainwashed beyond anything I can possibly comprehend. A scenario like that seems like total fiction to me, because I just can’t get my head around how someone (or a whole group of someone’s) can succumb to something like that without question. But the truth is, it’s not fiction. There are cults just like this one functioning in real life. I think a story like this is definitely appropriate for a pre-adolescent (or early adolescent) audience because it demonstrates that sometimes, just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t necessarily make it a right, or a good thing. It’s good to ask questions, and knowledge is always, always power.

This is a very easy book to read and I knocked it over in two hours flat (including time allocated for a coffee and toilet break). Morris Gleitzman has totally outdone himself this time and this book (unexpectedly) knocked my freaking socks off! Two extremely enthusiastic yaReads thumbs up for Grace.

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When the love of Anna’s life and recently acquired boyfriend dies tragically in a car accident, she isn’t sure how she’s supposed to go on with her life. The only problem is, she can’t really grieve the way she wants to because no one knows that they were an item, especially not her best friend who also happens to be his sister. Anna never told Frankie because he wanted to be the one that broke the news. Now he’s gone, she’s doing everything possible to protect their secret and respect his wishes.

Then Frankie’s parents invite Anna to come along on their annual family holiday to California in place of their beloved (and dead) son and brother. Not really wanting to let Frankie down, Anna accepts. But she’s nervous. Zanzibar Bay was Matt’s favorite place on earth. How will Anna cope being so close to something he loved so much, without him?

Then Frankie decides that this summer is going to be all about boys. A different boy each day, making it their twenty boy summer. For someone like Frankie, twenty boys in twenty days sounds fabulous, but for someone like Anna, there is only one boy. There has only ever been one boy, and the way she’s feeling right now, there won’t ever be another one, either. Being the good friend she is, though, Anna goes along with Frankie’s game, and she becomes very good at pretending she’s participating in Frankie’s little challenge, when really she’s just watching on.

But then they meet Sam and Jake and Anna realises that maybe she’d like to play the game after all. Not for twenty boys, because that’s totally uncharacteristic for a girl like her, but Sam is special enough that maybe she could play for one boy.

Things are running along smashingly until Frankie finds Anna’s journal, and all the letters she wrote to Matt, all the details of their private affair. And Frankie is livid. The girls have the showdown of their lives and they realise that the one thing they had in common might just be the very same thing that tears them apart.

I have to say, I really didn’t like Frankie. She’s shallow, ignorant, selfish and just plain annoying. I had real trouble understanding why someone like Anna – who is none of the aforementioned things – is friends with someone like Frankie. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Frankie isn’t a complex character, but I couldn’t bring myself to care about her enough to try and decode her mysteries. Anna, however, was a joy to get to know. I loved her flashbacks to her time with Matt and I could really feel her love and adoration for him. And when she met Sam, I really felt her conflict. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be scared of loving someone new for fear of forgetting the past, especially when the past is all you have left of someone.

Twenty Boy Summer is Sarah Ockler’s first novel and it has a very Sarah Dessen feel to it, which is a compliment of the highest kind. I can’t wait to see what she produces next.

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There are lots of interesting things about Beatle. His name isn’t really Beatle, for one, but the name ‘Beatle’ is a pretty fitting nickname, since his real name is actually John Lennon – for real. Beatle’s eccentric, astrological crazed mother is a huge fan of the pop group, The Beatles, and I reckon that’s all I need to say about that!

Another interesting thing about Beatle is the fact that he’s a twin, but he’s no ordinary twin. Beatle’s sister, Winsome, was born 45 days after Beatle, making her birthday fall on a completely different day, in a completely different year to Beatle’s. How many twins can say that about themselves?

And then there’s Beatle’s limp. Beatle had a stroke a couple of years ago and his gimp walk is something that is a constant reminder of his ordeal. A stroke sounds like something only old people experience, but Beatle is living proof that old people’s health problems can plague the youthful, too. I reckon all these things together make Beatle one pretty interesting character.

Then, on freaky Friday the 13th, in a remarkable twist of fate, Beatle meets Destiny, and his story gets even more interesting…

Destiny McCartney can’t freaking believe that this Beatle guy’s name is really John Lennon. I mean, come on, how trippy is that? He she is, Destiny McCartney, just minding her own business at the bus stop after a disastrous Friday afternoon, and along comes John Lennon. Of course, he’s not the real John Lennon – the musical genius – but you have to admit, it’s pretty freaky all the same. The irony is certainly not wasted on her, or him, for that matter.

There are lots of interesting things about Destiny, too. She’s the second youngest sibling in a family of nine kids. Although most of her siblings are in their twenties and beyond, a lot of them still live at home. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live in a house full of so much chaos!

Another interesting thing about Destiny is that she’s always up for a bit of fun. In a bout of boredom one afternoon, Destiny and her friends answer a ‘Stalker Wanted’ advertisement in their local newspaper, thinking that the person who paid for the advertisement is the one who wants a stalker, but then a whole bunch of crazy things start happening to Destiny and her family and she realises that maybe, just maybe, she’s made a huge mistake. What kind of person answers a ‘Stalker Wanted’ advertisement anyway?

The most interesting thing about Beatle and Destiny, though, is not how much they like each other, but how much their lives are already so intertwined, and they have absolutely no idea. Beatle and Destiny’s freak meeting on that uneventful Friday afternoon proves that maybe fate has a little more control over our lives than we really care to admit. Some people are just meant to be.

Beatle Meets Destiny is a belly aching, hilarious read. Destiny and Beatle are such unique characters and their story is like a breath of very fresh air. Set in Melbourne, Australia, Beatle and Destiny’s story flows effortlessly off the page into what felt like was a real-life drama. This is one book that I think would make a rocking, Indie Australian film. I hope someone out there in film-land thinks the same one day.

This is Gabrielle Williams first novel for young adult and I sincerely hope that it is not her last. I’d recommend this book to anyone, of any age, gender, or nationality.

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My mom can be confusing without even trying. If I tell her I have to something because everyone is doing it, she says, just be yourself. She says people respect that. But what if you send fan mail to romance writers? And get teary-eyes at chick flicks? What if you still get spooked during thunderstorms? These are not things that you want to share with others. Being yourself might make people reject you. People you desperately care about. Being yourself only works if you’re basically cool. Which I’m not.

There’s another problem with mom’s advice. How can you be yourself if you don’t know who that is?

David is pretty sure he’s gay. At least he knows that much about himself. He thinks about guys in sexual ways and he can’t help but perve on his team mates in the showers after practice. But David doesn’t think he should be thinking these things, so he snaps a rubber band around his wrist to snap at every time he has an ‘inappropriate’ thought about a guy.

But then Sean, the guys he’s been crushing on, sort of outs himself to David. Although its clear that Sean has no intention of outing himself to anyone else, David does pretty much anything Sean wants him to – even when its clear that Sean is not going to reciprocate.

Then David gets brave and tells Kick – the girl he’s kind of been seeing. She doesn’t flip out, like he thought he would, but she doesn’t keep the information to herself, like she said she would. Then Sean’s parents ban him from seeing David, and everything goes a little haywire.

Eventually, David grows a pair and takes a stand against Sean’s manipulative, selfish behaviour. He fixes things with Kick, and his other friends, too. While the ending is kind of nice, I wouldn’t go so far to say that this is a feel good novel. Sean – whom I absolutely loathe, by the way – doesn’t really grow at all and appears to learn no lessons whatsoever. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. I’m not of the opinion that the characters need to grow morally in a story to make it good. I’m just saying that Sean was the same frustrating ass at both the beginning and the end of the novel.

By the end, I was convinced that Sean’s simply one of those people that’s going to live a long, lonely and frustrating life. Being gay is something that he’ll never be comfortable with and he’ll continue to manipulate people like David forever. Something deep inside me says I should feel sorry for him, but I disliked him so much that I just couldn’t bring myself to do so.

David, however, is a much more likable character. Although he’s a bit of a pushover for most of the novel, and his naivety and inability to see his relationship with Sean for what it is, is kind of annoying, he grew a pair just at the right place in the story and he restored all my faith in him once more. Like with so many other novels I’ve read lately, I thanked my lucky stars that the novel was narrated through David’s point of view, and not Sean’s. Had it been the other way around, I may not have been able to finish.

I just have one question, for anyone that might have read this novel. Why oh why did David sleep with Kick? I mean, it fits the story I suppose, but I just don’t understand. He didn’t want to. He didn’t even have to. She knew he was gay. WHYYYYYYYY? I was angry with David for following through on this… I’d be keen to hear your thoughts on this scene.

The story flows well, and it’s pretty easy to read. I reckon lots of you out there might like this one.

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Elisabeth’s hand trembled as she lifted the jar of warm liquid. She wanted to run away and scream that it was all a mistake, but instead, she took a deep breath and poured her urine over the plastic pregnancy tester. A few drops spilt on the bathroom tiles.

She shivered, it was so unfair. They’d only done it a few times and it hadn’t even been that good. Not like it was in books or movies. She looked at her watch and crossed her fingers as her brother rattled the door handle.

‘I’m busy!’ she yelled.

‘All right, keep your hair on.’ He walked away. Then the blue lines appeared. Elisabeth stared at the tester and knew that now she had to make a choice.

When seventeen-year-old Elisabeth falls pregnant, she has a tough choice to make: keep the baby, or make alternative arrangements. Choices represents possible outcomes for both scenarios. Libby’s narration shows readers how Elisabeth copes with life after choosing to keep the baby, and Beth’s narration shows readers how Elisabeth’s life turns out after she has an abortion. So let’s talk about both perspectives…

When Libby’s parents flip out after learning about her pregnancy (and her desire to keep the baby), life becomes very tense at Libby’s house. She realises that she can’t live there for too much longer, not if she wants to have a healthy, stress free environment to bring up her baby. So, when Darren – Libby’s boyfriend, and the father of her baby -  tells his parents, although they’re awfully disappointed and angry with them both, they at least offer to help. They set Darren and Libby up in an apartment and Libby sets about finishing school via correspondence. Sounds kind of perfect considering the situation, right?

Right.

When the baby – little Daniella – comes along, Libby and Darren realise just how hard their lives have become. Darren starts his first year at uni while Libby is stuck at home with a screaming infant, no support, and no clue how to raise a child. Is life so perfect now? I think not.

Mixed into all that is Beth’s story. Same girl, different nickname. Same pregnancy, different outcome. Beth doesn’t tell Darren that she’s pregnant and takes herself off to the clinic to take care of the whole thing. Darren’s not stupid, though, and he knows something is up. He never really mentions anything about it, and just sends her an envelope of cash and a small, apologetic note. Soon after, he starts dating another girl and Beth starts on a path of self-destruction. Not eating and vomiting when she does eat becomes common practice for Beth. But her story isn’t all bad. She goes to uni (which is something Libby does not do) and she makes new friends, participating in all kinds of teenage rites of passage. Beth’s life ends up following a very different path to Libby’s.

This technique of narrating two scenarios through the same character is extremely well done. The experience of falling pregnant changes Elisabeth, and the decision(s) she makes about the outcome changes her even more. Personally, I actually ended up liking the Elisabeth that has the baby more than the version of her who didn’t – and that has absolutely nothing to do with her actual decision to keep her child (I’m not pro-life, I’m pro-choice). I didn’t like the girl that Beth became: the moods, the destructive behaviour. While I understand an abortion is a huge thing for a teenager to process, I felt like shaking her and screaming at her that it was her choice, deal with it!

If you’re interested in reading about teen pregnancy scenarios, then this book is definitely one you should read. I enjoyed it entirely, even the bits that frustrated me and made me want to shake the character

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Sixteen-year-old Jacob Smithson has a temper. He’s picked on because he likes boys, and fighting gets him kicked out of public school. As a last resort, his parents place him in St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Boarding School for Boys. At his first mass at St. Thomas he sees Avery Dendritch, a senior who serves as altar boy during the service. When they meet, the attraction between them is hard to deny. The two become fast friends, and as the school year progresses, their friendship deepens until Jacob feels he’s found a place where he belongs. But the other students gossip about their growing relationship. Avery can ignore them; Jacob can’t. As the rumors and slurs start up again, can he curb his temper, or will his fighting get him expelled from St. Thomas, too?

I can’t make up my mind whether or not I liked this book. I read it a few days ago and I’ve been weighing up the pros and cons ever since. I think it’s probably safest to say that I’m sitting on the fence with this one. If you want to know my reasons, continue reading.

Con: Although Without Sin is narrated by two characters (something which I normally love), I couldn’t bring myself to feel any kind of attachment to either Jacob or Avery. Their “voices” were too similar for any real distinction to be made. They both seemed kind of shallow and I felt like they fell in “love” too fast. For me, their relationship was based on physical attraction only, and this is something I can never relate to.

Pro: This novel wasn’t censored in any way. So many young adult novels portray teen characters as all too innocent, something which I feel is a misrepresentation of many youth today. Without Sin does not do this, and it explores teenage sexual desires well. I felt this aspect of this novel was truthful and dealt with appropriately.

Con: Although I was impressed by the lack of censorship, the issue of sex seemed to be all it was about. There was very little plot, except one huge build up to the point where the two boys finally have sex.  Because of this, it didn’t hold my attention that well and I found I had to force myself to keep reading.

Pro: I liked the ending. While I’m not going to tell you what it is, I found the ending to be quite realistic. It’s refreshing to find a novel where everything isn’t wrapped up in a fairy tale ending. Readers are given closure, but it’s not all happily ever after, if you know what I mean. Snaps to J Tomas for pulling this off so well.

Every time I think I make up my mind about this one, it changes right back again. So I’m not going to provide a summary opinion. You’ll just have to read it and decide for yourself this time.

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Along for the Ride is Sarah Dessen’s new novel. It follows Auden – a high school graduate living out her summer while she waits for college to start – who teaches us that messed up families come in all shapes and sizes, and that success doesn’t always make you the world greatest, most admirable person.

In a split decision, Auden decides to pack up her car and go and spend the summer at the beach with her dad. Her parents have been separated for a good long while now, and her stepmother just gave birth, so Auden figures this might be a good way to pass the summer days. What she doesn’t expect, though, is how much her summer life changes who she is inside.

For her whole life, Auden has been surrounded by academia. Her dad is a fiction writer and her mother is a literary academic, so it’s no surprise that Auden is highly academic, too. In fact, Auden is nothing but academic. She’s got no friends and no interests outside of her academic realm. Her parents raised her like she was an adult, so Auden has never really had much of a childhood, and cutesy kiddy things never seemed to hold their attention. So, Auden used the one thing she knew would work: academia. She’s spent her whole life studying like a maniac, but for what? Now that high school is over, was it really all worth it?

After spending less than a week at her dad’s place, Auden realises that marriage and a new life with someone else hasn’t changed him at all. He’s still the same selfish old man that he was before. And what about her mother? She’s an entirely different piece of work. It seems that her mother doesn’t have a sympathetic, nice bone in her body. How can Auden feel close to someone like that? How can anyone?

Enter Eli. He’s spent his whole life doing the kiddy stuff that Auden avoided, and he reckons Auden can’t leave her adolescence behind without actually experiencing some of it first. So he sets Auden on a mission: to do all the things one does when they’re young and goofy before the summer is out. The more time she spends with him, the more Auden realises that her view of the world might be a bit skewed, and very closed-minded. Eli seems to be the perfect remedy for that and Auden latches on nice and tight. What Auden doesn’t realise, though, is that Eli has some problems of his own. Problems which, according to everyone else in town, have been a permanent fixture in his life for some time now. Then Auden shows up and Eli starts to heal. Why, then, do the people around her seem so worried about all the time Eli and Auden are spending together? If Eli is getting better, shouldn’t that be a good thing?

People are very complex, but sometimes the solution is really very simple. Sometimes, all you need is a little bit of love.

Auden is a captivating character and being inside her head was a joy. I felt sad for her and at times I even felt angry with her, but most of all I found it all too easy to relate to her. High school is a time for fun, friendship and feeling free, but I think there are more Auden’s in the world than we care to admit, and something tells me that girls all over the world are going to see a little piece of themselves in her.

This, like so many of Sarah Dessen’s novels, is one of those reads where not a lot really happens, but heaps is achieved, if you know what I mean. Dessen’s writing is truly flawless, and in my opinion, she is one of the most understated young adult writers around. She deserves more credit and exposure than she gets. Her books deal with everyday teen issues that often get swept aside and chalked up to adolescent hormones. Dessen validates these issues and brings them to life, sending a message to teens everywhere that they matter, that what they feel matters. She is an asset to the world of young adult literature and someone I’ll never tire of reading. I can see myself very easily becoming obsessed with this book. Along for the Ride is one of the best I’ve read this year and deserves two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

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Today is the one-year anniversary of the first day of my last period.

I’m not exactly celebrating.

When I lied to my mom about getting my period, it was the easiest escape route at the time. I didn’t think much of it because I was sure that sooner or later, it would turn out to be true. So every twenty-eight days I take tampons out of the box under the sink and flush them down the toilet to make her think that I’m cycling as I should.

But I can’t tell her now that my ovaries aren’t back from vacation. She’ll not only freak out and ground me for lying, but she’ll make me go to the gyno as well. And the very thought of getting up in the stirrups and letting a total stranger go elbow deep and up to my uterus … Jesus Christ!

This is not a book about teen pregnancy. This is not a book that advocates or condemns teen pregnancy. This is a book about Jessica Darling. Jess is many things – a runner, a daughter, an academic, a sister, and a friend – but pregnant is certainly not one of them. No sir. In order to be pregnant one would have to engage in sexual intercourse first, and that would require actually snaking the attention of her high school crush – Paul Parlipiano. But even though they run on the same track team Paul doesn’t even know she exists. So pregnancy, my dear friends, is so far from the reason Jess’s period is MIA it’s not even funny.

The real explanation is far more boring, far less scandalous, far more Jessica. Jess, you see, is a runner. She’s on the track team and she trains a lot. She has trouble sleeping and she’s really skinny. Even after her grueling training sessions, when she can’t sleep in the middle of the night, Jess gets up and goes running, hoping that she’ll tire herself out so she can sleep. She runs and runs and runs and runs. Jess knows this is the reason she hasn’t got her period, and although she knows its bad to go for so long without menstruating, her running seems to be a bigger priority.

Then one night, while out running, Jess injures her ankle. She manages to drag herself home limping and crying and moaning in pain. Exit excessive running here. In fact, exit all running here. At least now her dad can’t bug her about her track meets anymore, not being able to actually participate and all. But what about the middle of the night? How is she going to get to sleep now?

Enter Marcus Flutie. He’s the resident bad boy, the one everyone loves to hate. Turns out that he and Jess have far more in common than she originally thought – not that she was thinking of him, no sir, someone like Jessica Darling would never be thinking of someone like Marcus Flutie – and talking to Marcus in the middle of the night seems to be the only way Jess can get herself to sleep. Jess learns many things about Marcus, but the most important of all is that Marcus is so not the person she thought he was. Jess realises that she’s falling for him, but brushes it aside because she knows that Marcus doesn’t date girls like her. Besides, he’s got a floozy girlfriend anyway. She sees them groping in the hallways all the time. Gross. But Jess is beautifully naïve and often doesn’t see what’s right in front of her. Will Marcus lead good, wholesome Jess down a path of disobedience and destruction, like everyone thinks he will? And honestly, how can she stand him anyway? No one gets it… no one at all.

Jessica’s voice is raw and fresh. Megan McCafferty captures what so many teens are thinking but do not say. Jessica Darling is so real that she could be me, or you, or the girl sitting next to you on the bus. I bought every single word that came out of her mouth. Her way of looking at things brings light and humour to even the saddest and darkest of situations, and makes for one hell of an entertaining read. You’ll laugh, you might cry, but you’ll certainly feel every pang, every stomach churn that good ol’ Jess goes through. As her name suggests, she’s every bit the teenage darling.

One of the best books I’ve read in a long time. I positively cannot wait to get my hands on a copy of the next book in the series, Second Helpings.

P.S I think I’ve come down with a case of Flutie Fever. Watch out, I hear it’s very contagious.

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High school junior Marlee McAllister lives and breathes softball. She’s the pitcher for the Clarkson Cougars in the North Country of upstate New York. With the season opener approaching, Marlee and her best friend, Jeri D’Amico, go scout their rivals, the East Valley Panthers. The Panthers star pitcher, Christy Loveland, took the All County pitching title the preceding year. It’s a title that Marlee covets. Marlee and Jeri settle in for the game but as the Panthers take the field, Marlee finds herself staring at Susie Torres, the Panther left fielder.

And so starts the beginning of the biggest change in Marlee’s life. When Marlee realises that the feelings she’s experiencing for Susie are nothing like what it feels like to be with Bobby – her boyfriend – she begins to question why they’re even together. All he wants to do is make out and go parking, and that’s the last thing Marlee wants to do with Bobby. When Bobby leaves her for someone else, Marlee is shocked but also a little relieved.

Enter Susie. At a party one night, Susie tells Marlee that she thinks she beautiful. As soon as the words fall on Marlee’s ears, she feels completely unable to hold her feelings in any longer. The girls end up making out and so starts the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Unsure of how their friends will react, the two girls decide to keep their newfound love a secret. And it’s a good thing they do, because Susie’s best friend (and Marlee’s rival pitcher), Christy Loveland, wants Susie all to herself. Not in the same way that Marlee and Susie want each other, but her jealously becomes a major problem for the new couple all the same. Will the new couple survive the pressure so early on in their relationship?

What I loved about this book the most was Marlee’s immediate, unquestioned acceptance of her newfound sexuality. She didn’t go into denial, and she didn’t embark on a downward spiral of self-hate and loathing. When their friends found out that Susie and Marlee were dating, there were no homophobic reactions and certainly no friendships lost over the issue. This is the first book I’ve found for gay teens that doesn’t include the protagonist’s ‘coming out’ being met with a barrage of objections and hate. Although the two girls did express concern about how their loves ones would react, it wasn’t a huge issue and it was clear that they certainly weren’t going to let that stop them being together.  It was so refreshing (and joyous!) to read a novel for gay teens that shows the protagonist in positive circumstances, rather than the tragic ones that so often get published.

Out of Left Field is a short, punchy feel-good read that gets straight to the point (no pun intended).

If you want information about Barbara’s other books, click here

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