Pay it Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde

After quickly finishing off Chasing Windmills las year, I knew I had to find as many copies of Catherine Ryan Hyde's books as possible. Unfortunately, this was a hard thing to do, as Books-A-Million only ever has Pay it Forward, if even that, and Barnes and Noble never seems to have a single one in stock, and if so, it is only one copy of Pay it Forward. But I didn't want to read this one, because I had already seen the movie when I was a lot younger. I vaguely remembered details, but distinctly recalled the plot of the story, and didn't think I would enjoy reading it after already knowing it. I was wrong.

It all started with the social studies teacher's extra-credit assignment: "Think of an idea for world change, and put it into action." Twelve-year-old Trevor McKinney just knew he liked this man, and just knew he would do a great job on the assignment. He began by doing something good for three people. The first he helped was a random stranger, the second a lovely neighbor he would sit and talk with on his paper routes, and the third someone inside his own life, someone who needed help not in any measurable way, but in a way that is infinite and can never be pinned down to a point. But instead of paying him back, he asked them to "pay it forward" by doing a favor for three more people, and those nine would each help three others, and those twenty-seven would help three each, and so on, each act a link in a chain of human kindness.

And no one--not his teacher, his mom, or anyone else in his small California town--could ever have dreamed of how far Trevor's plan would go. Not even Trevor thought that it made it outside the three people he helped. When so many things went wrong, Trevor didn't know if he should even try anymore, but he knew he could change the world, so he gave it all he had. On the day the assignment was due, Trevor walked up to the front of the class to tell them all it hadn't worked, hadn't made it past the first few, and that his idea had failed.

What he didn't know, was that it had gone farther than he thought, spanning across the country unseen, spread by many who didn't even know why they did it.

All I can say about this books is...wow. I lost it, just shortly after starting to read it, and feared I left it on a plane, or in an airport, on in a different state, and completely freaked out. I had gotten about sixty pages in, and was so deep into the characters that the thought of losing the entire book shook my insides outside and my outsides inside. I was so mixed up and sad. But by some incredible miracle, the tiny little yellow book fell out of the sky and onto my bed one day. When I asked my mom if she had put it there she said, "Well, no. But I saw it somewhere the other day and thought it was yours. I made it halfway to your room, but never got to your bed with it. I wonder how it got there..."

Now, I'm not saying I believe her. I think she may have sneaked a look at it, and secretly horded it from me for weeks. Even though she doesn't really read. And it would have taken her longer than that to read it. But I still believe it was a miracle it ended up on my bed (or, well, that's a lie. It was on my bed, but I came home late-ish one night and was too tired to turn on the light so I just went and fell asleep and sometime between awake and sleep, I kicked it off of my bed and it landed near my bookshelf). But I was unbelievably ecstatic to see it the next morning.

So I went deeper into the characters and came out wanting more. Trevor's belief in the world is astonishing, as he has little belief in his own father, but still completely true and real. Reuben and Arlene make the perfect pair as two people that fit so well into each others personality frames that they feel like a puzzle--so hard to figure out at first, but once it's all solved, it feels like one whole instead of tiny little pieces of fragmented images. And for once, I loved that the movie was drastically different in some ways, because it allowed me to picture the scenes and characters on my own, as I so love to do. The images of every single one of these fictional people are etched into my mind as if they're real memories of people standing before me. Catherine Ryan Hyde can just do that--just make the words become real events and real people right before your eyes.

Once again, she does not fail to astonish, and I one-hundred-percent suggest this novel--even if you've seen the movie, even if you haven't. I think the Mr. Coffee made 5/5 cups for this one. Can't wait to buy some of her others--probably off Amazon.

Heather

GIRL WEEK

Over at Reviewer X's most amazing blog, she is doing something SUPER-
AWESOME!! As she usually is. Right now, she is doing this thing called Girl Week, which is basically a whirlwind of reviews and author interviews and guest blogs and contests, all relating to feminism. I think this rocks. A lot.

Girl Week also features some really really incredible contests. Such as two of my very favorite series(es? what is the plural of series? any grammer nazis out there?), complete, and SIGNED. Yes. SIGNED.

Go! GO! I direct you to the nifty table of contents.
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/girl-week-table-of-contents.html

I'm off to read an interview with Megan McCafferty.
:)))

The Whirlwinds Return!

The Maelstroms are back at their old home!

And to celebrate a year of reviewing, they're having a really amazing contest, where, should you win, you get A LOT OF STUFF.
A lot of awesome stuff, including:

TWO books, which you pick from lists of each reviewer's favorites.
A mix of music compiled by the Maelstrom.
A random bookmark from Ireland
and a UK copy of Artemis Fowl.

So go! Contest! Rules here. (I mean, there------>)http://www.maelstrombooks.blogspot.com

Love,
Caroline

Lost It- Kristin Tracy

I could respond to what my dear cohort said in her last post, but since I am so delightfully selective about the reality I choose to accept, I'm doing a review instead.

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At the start of her junior year, Tess Whistle is a fairly sheltered girl. Her parents are strict (she's not allowed to get a driver's license, even though she lives in Idaho, where permits are handed out at fourteen), she's got a portrait of (a mysteriously blond) Jesus hanging in her living room, and she's absolutely set on saving herself for Serious Engagement. Also, she's terrified of nature (or, more to the point, terrified of the unknown). Of course, this is all before her kitchen is set on fire, her mother becomes 'born again', and both of her parents take off for an Outward Bound-type camp in the desert. This is before her best friend becomes detirmined to blow up a neighborhood poodle. This is before Ben Easter. Sheltered is soon to be the last word that could describe Tess with any accuracy.

I think that anyone who has read any substantial amount of YA fiction has read plenty of books that, upon first inspection, seem very similar to this one. The "innocent girl loses her virginity to her first boyfriend and gets her heartbroken" storyline is a familiar one, to be sure. And I was kind of hesitant to read this for that reason. However, I was really pleasantly surprised. This book actually broke down a lot of cliches, and handled a common concept in a new, intriguing way. The relationship between Ben and Tess was done beautifully. One of my favorite things about it was the way Tess wasn't totally enchanted by Ben- she actually recognized when he said something cheesy, which almost never happens in books. It's such a nice thing to see, because it's realistic. He had faults; he seemed like an actual guy, not a perfect and beautiful and witty and never-lame-ever-at-all type that I read about most of the time, and I loved him all the more for it. Also, I was overjoyed that this book strayed away from making Ben the skeezy skirt chaser who bolts after getting to the girl's pants. That made me very happy.

This book would have been pretty good if it had stuck to the Ben and Tess storyline, but the subplots were what really made it great for me. I loved Tess's crazy grandmother (who gives Tess boy-wisdom she learned from her pet monkey) and adored Zena, Tess's best friend, who is blunt and crazy and weird and awesome. I love a book with a good best friend. The writing was really nice in this as well. I can't wait to read whatever Kristin Tracy puts out there next!

4.5 cups for this one.

Love,

Caroline

PS: comments make me so so so so so so happy and i need all the happy i can get right now.

so tired of being the one

to tell you that I'm sorry. For not being active. The issue is, I'm, personally, not sure if I have the time to keep up with this blog anymore. I barely keep up with my personal blog, and that isn't as difficult. I'm thinking about reviewing a few more books this month (one for Discordia is actually in the process of being written) and then taking December off. I've been planning to take December off for a while, since I'll be gone for half of it, and I'm going to try to realize during Christmas break, maybe re-read some books that I really love and read a few more that aren't reviewing material. Some things I just want to get out of the way. After that--and I haven't even talked to Caroline about this-- I think I'll decide if I want to continue anymore. Probably not, since we are performing Emma for Drama Club next semester and that's going to be an insane amount of rehearsals, and long ones at that. So I'll be just as busy next semester (well, more probably) and that will make it harder. I'm sad that if I decide not to that I won't have even lasted a year.

And there are so many things about being in the YA reviewing world that I love. I love talking to authors and all of our readers. I love receiving books in the mail, which doesn't happen otherwise. I love the opportunities I receive by reviewing. And I love books and talking about them. But I don't love the work that I have to put into keeping this blog up-to-date, or pausing and writing a review between books, or ignoring school work so I can do this stuff. But if there's a reviewing team out there that I can join part-time coming January, I'll be perfectly happy with that. So if there's anyone out there that wouldn't mind me coming to their team in January, let me know, please.

Heather, your long lost reviewer

as simple as snow- gregory galloway

caution: this is not a short review.

________________________

Anna Cayne had moved here in August, just before our sophomore year in high school, but by February she had, one by one, killed everyone in town. So begins this beautiful, tragic, maddening novel. If I've ever come across a better first line, it currently escapes me. And, believe it or not, the novel gets even better than this. But, to give you a bit of back story before I leap into my unending praise:

It is said that Anna Cayne was born in a thunderstorm. A slightly spooky and complicated high school girl with a penchant for riddles, short wave radios, Houdini tricks, and ghost stories, Anna spends much of her time writing obituaries for every living person in town. She is unlike anyone the narrator has ever been with, and they make an unlikely, though happy, pair.*

Until Anna disappears, a week before Valentine's day. There is no evidence left behind except for a neatly placed dress near a hole in the frozen river, and no one is certain what's happened to Anna- murder, suicide, runaway- but the narrator is desperate to find out, especially as anonymous packages and coded messages continue to reach him. As Simple As Snow is a tale of love, of mystery, of ghosts, and of codes.

So much of this story is a mystery that it's a bit hard to write about. Anna, to start with the obvious, is the most enigmatic character I have ever encountered- not only in her disappearance, but in everything that precedes it- her bruises, her peculiar habits, her postcards and packages and notes, her riddles and her on again/off again tattoo. As she puzzles the narrator, the reader is left hopelessly confused as well- but hooked, captivated from their first conversation. Of course, Anna isn't the the only mystery here by a long shot. The narrator is never named, for one thing, which is even more infuriating here then it is in Rebecca, because of Anna's tantalizing hints. And actually figuring the name out posed even more questions- and more crazy theories. Even the acknowledgements are written in a code, mentioned earlier as belonging to Houdini and his wife (with the author's apologies to Harry and Bess). But while all of this makes me mad in both senses of the word, I love it. All of this is what makes the book impossible to put down, at least with obsessing over it for every second it's not in your hand. This is a book that you (I, anyway) stay up until 1:30 in the morning finishing, have nightmares about, and start thinking about again as soon as the alarm clock goes off 5 hours later.

Well. That's, at least, one of the things that make this novel so amazing.

The characters are multifaceted and fascinating. Anna- impossible, enigmatic, twisted Anna- is more compelling than any character I've ever read about. Her riddles, her lies, her answered questions; she has no equal in the worlds of any of the other books I've read. And Anna is only the beginning. There's Claire, the girl who is too sweet to be a Goth; Carl, the most popular guy in school, a drug dealer, and the narrator's only friend; Bryce Druit, Mr. Devon, and their inexplicable relationships with Anna; the complex and utterly screwed-up parents of Carl, Anna, and the narrator. Our storyteller himself, who very early on assures us that he is 'bland as milk- or, worse, water' establishes himself otherwise almost immediately.

And, of course, I can't resist a good love story. What I like about Ana and the narrator's relationship, first of all, is that it starts nearly right away- there is a minimal amount of the whole pining and chasing and ridiculousness that is seen in nearly every book out there. Everything about their courtship is so straightforward, so to the point. So simple. The contrast between this and the complexities of the novel and the relationship itself is brilliant. Also, there is nothing gushy or cutesy about Anna and the narrator's interactions,and yet they are an incredibly endearing couple. Their intelligent banter, their twisted manner of flirting- there is an intimacy to the way they talk, and it though neither of them once say it, it is undeniable that they love each other. And you- or, I, anyway, once again- find yourself thinking: this is what matters. This is what perfect is: not roses, not getting on an airplane with someone at a moment's notice, not landing the gorgeous guy or the most romantic first kiss or the biggest engagement ring. This. Conversations like those. That is perfect. That is love. And it is utterly devastating when it comes to an end.

The writing is exceptional. I regretted checking this book out of the library as soon as I started it- there is something on practically every page that merits annotation, hearts and underlines and scribbled thoughts. I will definitely be needing my own copy of this. Galloway writes with skill, with feeling, with beauty. As clever and as well thought out as the story clearly is, it never seems contrived. It feels so real, in fact, that I have to wonder whether I'm so sure it's not.

Yet another mystery.

But Anna sums that up better than I could if I tried to re-write this review for a lifetime:

"It's almost more fun not knowing," she said, "if you knew what it all meant, then it might not be as interesting or compelling. That's probably half the fun, not knowing. Sometimes there's more in the mystery of things than anything else."

Five overflowing cups of coffee could not bring me the same sense of euphoria as this book. No lie.

Go. Read this book.

And if you already have, uh... please email me or something so we can chat about it because I need to discuss this with someone.

ever so glad to be making her comeback,

Caroline

I feel as if a part of me is gone

How long's it been? Nearly a month now?

Sorry about the lack of reviews. I have no excuse for myself, and the only excuse I can think of for Caroline is that she is always slack like this. And that she has books I lent her months ago still on a shelf dedicated to me, unread (oh, how I love it). But I can tell you the reason is one-hundred-percent NOT becuase of a lack of books. No, we have plenty to read. In fact, I feel as if my life has been engulfed in books. Not a bad thing, I tell you. I've been moving from book to book and not giving myself time to review them. I'm sort of planning on just shoving myself back into the literary world and forcing myself to review Becoming Chloe by Catherine Ryan Hyde (amazing, if I do say so myself). But...I don't know. It's a very high possibility that shoving won't occur for some time. I've read many books since I seemingly abandoned Plenty of Paper, just having made myself review them. I will, though, soon (I hope).

I also hope that Caroline will bring forth a review of the many books she has read, too, because I just love reading what she has to say. I'm sure you do, too, don't you? She has a way with words I've yet to master, and I'm hoping she'll grace us here with her presence once more in the near future (and I'll be sure to tell her that either tonight or tomorrow at school).

So thanks for those of you who still read our lovely blog. Thanks for your patience, your loyalty, and most of all, your bookwormness.

Heather, your long lost reviewer.

Also, is anyone else just a tad bit sad that the Paper Towns Countdown has been completed? I mean, I'm happy the wait is over (even though mine was over a little while ago) but really? It's like the end of an era.