A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner 

New York: Dial Books, 2010

272 pages

3.5 out of 5

For months Cass had heard her best friend, Julia, whisper about a secret project.  When Julia dies in a car accident, her drama friends decided to bring the project--a musical called Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad-- to fruition.  But Cass isn't a drama person.  She can't take a summer of painting sets, and she won't spend long hours with Heather, the girl who made her miserable all through middle school and has somehow landed the leading role.  So Cass takes off.  In alternating chapters, she spends her first part of summer on a cross-country bike trip and the rest swallowing her pride, making props, and--of all things--falling for Heather.

This is a story of the breadth of love.  Of the depth of friendship. And of the most hilarious musical one quiet suburb has ever seen. (Description from Amazon).

I can't say that I know what I was expecting when it came to this novel, but I know it's not what it ended up being about. What's better though, is that I mean that in a good way.

The novel is told completely from Cass's point of view, but at different times in her life. It flits between the summer where she comes to grips with losing Julia and "the present" school year where she once again comes face-to-face with an old nemesis from middle school.  The switch was jarring a few times, primarily because I wanted to know more about what was happening and not take a trip down memory lane. Though the flashback chapters are important to understanding the relationship between Cass and Julia, I found them less interesting than the present events.

As the description mentions, Julia wrote a play called Totally Sweet Ninja Deathsquad. Whenever a phrase such as this pops in a book, I get a little worried. How hard is this trying? Well this one doesn't feel that way at all. The language is appropriate and natural. I can absolutely see Julia as the author of the play, and her friends as the ones who get it on stage.

This novel is an example of how things come about in unexpected ways. Friends prove themselves, opportunities present themselves, and love finds a way.

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Disclosure: I borrowed this ebook from my local library.

Teenage Waistland

Teenage Waistland by Lynn Biederman & Lisa Pazer

New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 2010

317 pages
4 out of 5

"You all believe that losing one-hundred-plus pounds will solve everything, but it won't.  Something heavier is weighing on you, and until you deal with that, nothing in your lives will be right.  - Betsy Glass, PhD, at first weekly group counseling session for ten severely obese teens admitted into exclusive weight loss surgery trial

Patient #1: Female, age 16, 5'4", 288 lbs

- Thrust into size-zero suburban hell by remarried liposuctioned mom.  Hates new school and skinny boy-toy stepsister.

- Body size exceeded only by her mouth.

Patient #2: Male, age 15, 6'2", 335 lbs.

- All-star football player, but if he gets "girl surgery," as his dad calls it, he'll probably get benched.

- Has moobies - male boobies.  Forget about losing his V-card - he's never even been kissed.

Patient #3: Female, age 15, 5'6", 278 lbs.

- Mobidly obese and morbid, living alone with severely depressed mother who won't leave her bed.

- Best and only friend is another patient, whose dark secret threatens everything patient #3 believes about life

Told in the voices of patients Marcie Mandelbaum, Bobby Konopka, and Annie "East" Itou, Teenage Waistland is a story of betrayal, intervention, a life-altering operation, and a long-buried truth that proves far more devastating than the layers of fat that protect it.

This was an everything novel. Yes, the main focus is on four teens who have lap-band surgery in order to lose weight, but within the lives of those four teens, just about everything happens.  There's sibling rivalry, a parent living vicariously through his child, the big game, familial distance, and a terrible secret.  Describing it in a list like that makes it seem like it's the description for the next episode of some popular soap opera. The good news is that all of these issues fit the characters and the novel without it feeling like it's trying to do too much.

Multiple voices allow for this to not feel quite so overwhelming.  Marcie, Bobby, and East all take turns telling their portion of the story.  There is a fourth character, Char (short for Charlotte), who does not narrate, but is still an integral part of the story. Plus, the fact that all her information is rolled up with East's is a wonderful method for showing how closely the two have bonded and is a perfect set-up for what's to come.

The characters are interesting and dynamic without coming across as cliche. This is tough when you have the jock, the big mouth, the wild girl, and the shy girl.  Even the ancillary characters (like Marcie's perfect, modelesque step-sister) don't necessarily fit the mold you would expect.

I was sucked in to their stories and struggles. Some scenes made me laugh, some made me sad or angry, but mostly I just wanted to know what happened next.

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Full disclosure: I borrowed this title from my local library.

Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock 

Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2006

275 pages

4.5 out of 5

When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.

Harsh words indeed, from Brian Nelson of all people.  But D.J. Schwenk can't help admitting to herself that maybe he's right.  Because it's obvious that no one is talking about why D.J's best friend, Amber isn't so friendly anymore.  Or why her little brother, Curtis, never opens or his mouth.  Or why her mom has two jobs, or why her college-football-star brothers don't call home.  And certainly no one is talking about how D.J's Dad would go ballistic if she tried out for the football team.  There's definitely a lot not being said.  And that's not even mentioning the many reasons that Brian Nelson is out of D.J's league.

Welcome to the summer that fifteen-year-old D.J. Schwenk of Red Bend, Wisconsin, learns to talk, and ends up having an awful lot of stuff to say.

I love D.J. She reminds me of me, minus the being tough and playing football part. Ok, so I guess she doesn't remind me of me at all, but I love that there's romance without it being super-duper girly and gushy all the time.

D.J. has more important things to deal with, like working the farm while her dad can't, getting in shape for football, & figuring out what is up with her best friend, instead of being all woozy over a boy.  She just does her thing and eventually it all comes together instead of her working ridiculously hard to make everything come together and then it all falling apart so that it can come together the "right" way.  (I think I just described every romance ever.)  Don't get me wrong, there are elements of that here, but it's a little different. At least, it felt different.

This was another of my audiobooks and I think  Natalie Moore* is one of my favorite narrators now.  She sounded very much like a Wisconsin teenager and also has a way with other character voices. I loved this book. It makes a great summer read. I'm just sad that we don't have the others in audio. 

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*Apparently, I'm not the only one who likes her. There's a list on goodreads.

Full disclosure: I borrowed the audio version from my local library.

Marcelo in the Real World

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork 

New York: Arthur A. Levine, 2009

312 pages
3 out of 5

Marcelo Sandoval hears music that nobody else can hear -- part of an autism-like condition that no doctor has been able to identify.  But his father has never fully believed in the music or Marcelo's unique perception of reality, and he challenges Marcelo to work in the mailroom of his law firm for the summer...to join "the real world."  There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm.  He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire.  But it's a picture he finds in a file -- a picture of a girl with half a face -- that truly connects him with the real world: it's suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.

I'm still not completely sure what I think of this novel. It took a second start for me to get into it, but even then it didn't always keep me.  It's well written. I like Marcelo and Jasmine. I want to punch Wendell in the face.

Marcelo is an interesting character, trying to get through life with an autism-like disorder. He manages well but it often bewildered by facial expressions and literal phrases that people use. The shift in his perspective is best part of the novel. He goes from his self-restricted world of his tree house, Paterson and the ponies, to the "real world" where he learns more than he thought possible. The understanding that eventually sets in is actually very sad.  It's the same as watching a child lose his innocence. And once it's gone, it cannot be retrieved.

Some of the plot points of the novel came up a bit short for me though. The mystery element was interesting for a bit, but then it began to feel like it was included simply for set-up and not for its own merit.  This element in particular redeems somewhat redeems itself.  For much of the second half of the novel, it felt like a lot was happening all at once but the conclusions were not completely satisfying.

Cha-Ching

Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen

Wendy Lamb Books, 2007

ISBN: 9780385746861

88 pages

3.5 out of 5

One day I was twelve years old and broke.  I set out to mow some lawns with Grandpa's old riding mower.  One client was Arnold the stockbroker, who offered to teach me about: the beauty of capitalism.  Supply and demand.  Diversifying labor.  Distributing wealth.  "It's groovy man," Arnold said.

The grass grew, and so did the business. Arnold invested my money in many things.  One of them was a prizefighter.  All of a sudden I was the sponsor of my very own fighter, Joey Pow.  That's when my twelfth summer got really interesting.

Gary Paulsen's comic story about a summer job becomes a slapstick lesson in business as one boy turns a mountain of grass into a mountain of cash.

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 This description is from the hardcover edition.

The first line of this book really got my attention: "It all began at nine in the morning on my twelfth birthday when my grandmother gave me an old riding lawn mower."  That was the most interesting part.

I like the first person perspective.  It's done very well and sounds enough like a kid that readers could relate.  My main problem is that some of the monetary details go pretty far before he says he was confused.  My brain turned to snooze when this was going on.  The most surprising part is what Lawn Boy does, actually doesn't do, when he has the sudden rush of cash.

Also the action is kind of like a Disney movie.  There's just enough danger or interest to get you to think something big(ger) is about to happen, but before you have a chance to really enjoy it a resolution is found. 

Overall it was a short, enjoyable book. I'm used to longer novels, and this is perhaps why I feel on the fence about this book.  There is a sequel, Lawn Boy Returns, so perhaps that will satiate my desire for more story.