Review: Want to Go Private by Sarah Darer Littman

Title:	Want to Go Private?
Author:	Sarah Darer Littman
Genre:	YA, Social Issues
Rating:	PG-13
Publisher:	Scholastic Press
Release Date:	August 1, 2011
Pages:	330
Source:	Finished Copy
My Rating:	5*

 [Goodreads | Amazon]

Abby and Luke chat online. They've never met. But they are going to. Soon.

Abby is starting high school—it should be exciting, so why doesn't she care? Everyone tells her to "make an effort," but why can't she just be herself? Abby quickly feels like she's losing a grip on her once-happy life. The only thing she cares about anymore is talking to Luke, a guy she met online, who understands. It feels dangerous and yet good to chat with Luke—he is her secret, and she's his. Then Luke asks her to meet him, and she does. But Luke isn't who he says he is. When Abby goes missing, everyone is left to put together the pieces. If they don't, they'll never see Abby again.

   

 “...I grab my laptop and log on to ChezTeen.com. Within minutes, I'm surrounded by friends, even though I've never met any of them. There, I can pretend that my first day of school was fantastic, because no one is going to know anything different. I can be anyone I want to be when I'm online and I don't even have to wear makeup.”

This book had been sitting in my TBR pile for quite some time. On a whim, I decided to pick it up for what I thought was going to be some 'light' reading. Yeah, so not a good call. While I would consider this book an 'easy' read it is definately cannot be considered a 'light' read. Want to Go Private? reads as a cautionary take depicting the alienation and grooming of a vulnerable teenager by an online predator and her journey to heal.

The story is told mainly from the prespective of th emain character Abby. There are instances where a portion of the story is told by one of the cast of supporting characters. Watching Abby go from a happy, but insecure teenage to a victim is pretty difficult. Want to Go Private? is pretty detailed and in my opinion fairly accurate in showing jus thow Abby was being groomed and not even realizing it. There was something so disturbing about watching Abby descend down this path unaware while you, the reader, is fully aware where this is headed.

Reading Want to Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman was like watching an episode of Dateline's How to Catch a Predator, but in reverse.

Review: Lie by Caroline Bock

Title:	Lie
Author:	Caroline Bock
Genre:	YA, Social Issues
Rating:	PG-13
Publisher:	St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date:	August 30, 2011
Pages:	224
Source:	Finished Copy
My Rating:	3.5*

 [Goodreads | Amazon]

Everybody knows, nobody’s talking. . . .

Seventeen-year-old Skylar Thompson is being questioned by the police. Her boyfriend, Jimmy, stands accused of brutally assaulting two young El Salvadoran immigrants from a neighboring town, and she’s the prime witness. Skylar is keeping quiet about what she’s seen, but how long can she keep it up? 

But Jimmy was her savior. . . .

When her mother died, he was the only person who made her feel safe, protected from the world. But when she begins to appreciate the enormity of what has happened, especially when Carlos Cortez, one of the victims, steps up to demand justice, she starts to have second thoughts about protecting Jimmy. Jimmy’s accomplice, Sean, is facing his own moral quandary. He’s out on bail and has been offered a plea in exchange for testifying against Jimmy.

The truth must be told. . . .

Sean must decide whether or not to turn on his friend in order to save himself. But most important, both he and Skylar need to figure out why they would follow someone like Jimmy in the first place.

     He wasn't against legal immigration. I asked him how his family got here, or were they American Indians?  He said that his mother's family owned farmland out on the South Fork going back to the 1700s.  He said his family documents are in Dutch, which is who were in charge here before the English.  I said good for him.  You can give history lessons.  My father's father lied about his age and came over steerage, on his knees the whole way.  He was called the Big Swede.  What about giving these people a chance?
     He said they were stealing our jobs.  I said they were doing job nobody else wanted.
     "You want them living next door to you?  Twenty, thirty, or more Mexicans jammed in a house together?"

I had been waiting to read this book for some time.  In fact, I think this book was one of my Waiting on Wednesday picks sometime back in May or June.  Every time I went to the bookstore in hopes of acquiring this book, it never quite worked out and I finally just ordered it online sometime back in October.  Of course as soon as I got it, I began reading it.  Sad to say, I was disappointed.  I was so disappointed in fact, that this book was originally classified as DNF on my shelf and after about 50 pages in, I put it down.  Usually, when I classify a book as DNF, I don’t pick it up again.  But for some reason, I decided to give this one a second chance.  I can honestly say that I am glad that I did.

Lie is told from multiple POVs and as such you really get to hear the viewpoints of everyone in this particular community.  The sad part is that all those POV’s really do mirror each other and still adhere to the line ‘everybody knows, but no one’s talking’.  It’s really disturbing to see just how everyone lets the fact that the victims were Mexican and the perpetrators were white cloud their minds to the fact that a crime was committed, and that lives were put in danger.  The really sad part is that Lie, even though fiction, mirrors events that have happened in real life.

I have never been more disgusted with a character than I was with Skylar.  She uses her loss as a way to make her apathetic to the suffering of anyone else.  The fact that she has gone through a loss should have made her appreciate life so much more.  Instead she has this pity me, poor me attitude that leads her to rely on the very racist Jimmy for absolutely everything.  For Skylar, I really didn’t see the struggle between right and wrong.  She clearly couldn’t tell the difference if it slapped her upside the head.  The sad thing is that she was not alone in that viewpoint.

Don’t get me wrong, I knew that Lie wasn’t going to be a book about fluffy bunnies and as such was likely going to provoke some intense reactions.  I was expecting outrage, frustration and maybe even a little sadness and anger.  What I was not prepared for was the absolute rage and disgust I felt while reading this book.  The tag line of Lie is ‘everybody knows, nobody’s talking’ and that one line should be enough to set anyone’s teeth on edge.  The fact that Lie is a book based around a hate crime, ‘everybody knows, nobody’s talking’ should outrage and disgust you.

Review: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Title: Living Dead Girl
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Genre: YA, Social Issues, Child Abuse
Rating: R
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: September 2, 2008
Pages: 170
Source: Purchased Finished Copy
My Rating: 5*

[Goodreads | Amazon]

Synopsis

The thing is, you can get used to anything. You think you can't, you want to die, but you don't. You won't. You just are.

This is Alice.
She was taken by Ray five years ago.
She thought she knew how her story would end.
She was wrong.

Quotes

     The audience always boos and says You Should Have Done Something.  You should have fought back.  You should have known no one has that kind of power.  You should have been strong.
     You shouldn't have been so stupid.
     The women nod and sniffle.  They are still broken.  They still agree with everything anyone wants.  Even the ones who try to explain end up with their heads down, their hands in their laps.  Little girl ready to say she's sorry.
     All our fault, always.

My Thoughts

Let me start this review off by saying that I have a cast iron stomach.  I also have a pretty warped sense of humor and I am not usually bothered by things that would make most people spend the rest of their lives on a psychiatrist's couch.  Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott disturbed me so much that it actually made me physically ill.

I have read books about abuse and I have read books about child abuse.  None of the other books I have read have have communicated the utter devastation, degradation and hopelessness that is demonstrated in Living Dead Girl.  It's not enough to just say that Alice is a victim and to get glimpses of the abuse that she has and is suffering.

What makes this story so profoundly disturbing is the insight into both the minds of Alice and her captor/abuser/tormentor Ray.  To see that Alice knows that she is never going to get out of this, in the traditional sense of being rescued and going home, but rather that the only way out for her is death and to watch her accept and welcome this is absolutely horrifying.

All I have to say is thank the lord that this book was only 170 pages long.  I don't think I could have handled reading much more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About the Author

Hey there, I'm Elizabeth. I write young adult novels. I live just outside Washington DC with my husband and dog, and am unable to pass a bookstore without stopping and going inside.

All right, and I can't leave without buying at least one book.

Usually two. (Or more!)

Visit her website!

Review: Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Title: Shut Out
Author: Kody Keplinger
Genre: YA, Social Issues
Rating: PG
Publisher: Poppy
Publication Date: September 5, 2011
Pages: 273
Source: Purchased Finished Copy
My Rating: 4*

[Goodreads | Amazon]

Synopsis

Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part,Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention 

Then Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. But what Lissa never sees coming is her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling...


Quotes

     "I just hear all those stories, and sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who's never done it.  I feel like I'm behind or something.  Like it makes me a prude."
     "You're not weird, or a prude, or a tease, or any of that," I assured her.  "Actually, I think it's great that you're waiting.  It's sort of refreshing.  And sex is a big deal, so you shouldn't rush it just because everyone else is doing it.  I think it's  major decision."

My Thoughts


While I do have Kody Keplinger's debut book DUFF, I have yet to read it.  I don't know what made me read Shut Out first, but I did and I really liked it.


I am not sure just how realistic a sex strike is, not to mention one amongst high school students, but it was an interesting premise.  It took the idea of sex being a weapon in a whole different direction.  In this book, sex was a weapon used to bring about change.  Or at least that is how it started, but alas, 'the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry'.  The girls, who believe they are holding all the power, are in for a bit of a rude awakening.


What I really liked about this book was not the sex strike, but rather the dialogue that sex strike provoked amongst the kids involved.  These were kids like any others and they assumed that they were all having sex, when they weren't.  The sex strike brought about several interesting conversations and realizations among both the guys and girls.  These were conversations really brought home the message of being true to yourself in all ways.


Shut Out was a good book and a very easy read.  It's one of the few books out there that I have read recently that has a pretty decent characterization of high-school students, their attitudes, and dialogue.

Review: But I Love Him

Title: But I Love Him
Author: Amanda Grace (Pseudonym), Mandy Hubbard
Genre: YA, Social Issues, Relationships & Abuse
Rating: PG-13
Publisher: Flux Books
Publication Date: May 8, 2011
Pages: 254 pages
Source: Purchased Finished Copy
Rating: 5*

[Goodreads | Amazon]

Synopsis

Tonight was so much worse than anything before it. Tonight he didn't stop after the first slap.


At the beginning of senior year, Ann was a smiling, straight-A student and track star with friends and a future. Then she met a haunted young man named Connor. Only she can heal his emotional scars; only he could make her feel so loved — and needed. Ann can't recall the pivotal moment it all changed, when she surrendered everything to be with him, but by graduation, her life has become a dangerous high wire act. Just one mistake could trigger Connor's rage, a senseless storm of cruel words and violence damaging everything — and everyone — in its path.


This evocative slideshow of flashbacks reveals a heartbreaking story of love gone terribly wrong.

Quotes

"What do you do when the one person you want comfort from the most is the one who caused your pain? How can I want so desperately for him to wrap me up in his arms but also want so much for him to leave me alone."

"It's not fair. It's not fair that he lets his rage take over, that he lets it rule him. I don't know why he has to let it rule him. I don't know why he has to be two people.   I don't know why he gets to be two people, and I only get to be me, the one who is here to take what he has to give, and who is here to pick up the pieces afterward."

"But even when I stop crying, even when we fall asleep and I'm nestled in his arms, this will leave another scar. No one will see it. No one will know. But it will be there. And eventually all of the scars will have scars, and that's all I'll be--one big scar of a love gone wrong."

 My Thoughts

Wow!

I could just leave my review at that and I would have summed up what I felt when reading But I Love Him by Amanda Grace.  Told in reverse chronological order But I Love Him chronicles the love story between Ann and Conner that was doomed from the very beginning.

I liked this book because it made me feel for the characters; both of them.  It's so easy when writing a story that chronicles abuse of any kind or the demise of a relationship to create at least one character, usually the abuser, that is just so horrible that the reader hates them.  They often come across as having no redeeming qualities and by the end of the book you are waiting and hoping for them to get a dose of their own medicine.  By contrast the victim is usually not really someone that readers can identify with, and spend the entire book shaking their heads wondering why they don't just get out.  That is not the case with this book.

In But I Love Him, Amanda Grace introduces two characters you can't help but feel for.  There is Ann who is the All American good girl who everyone loves and appears to be genuinely good person who wants the best for those around her.  Conner on the other hand is not so much a bad boy, but a broken boy.  He comes from an abusive home himself and seems to want to break the cycle of abuse, but he either doesn't know or posess the skill set to do so.  Ann wants to help Conner and wants him to be better, and it's over this year that she comes to realization that she can't save him, but rather she has to save herself.

Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Genre: Fiction & Literature, Social Issues, Suicide
Rating: PG - 13
Publisher: Razorbill
Publication Date: October 18, 2007
Source: Purchased Finished Copy
My Rating: 5*

[Goodreads | Amazon]

Synopsis

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker - his classmate and crush - who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why. Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and learns the truth about himself-a truth he never wanted to face.

 Quotes

 "I hope you're ready, because I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why."

"You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately you can’t be that precise and selective when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life."

"A lot of you cared, just not enough."

"You can't stop the future, you can't rewind the past, the only way to know the secret is to press play."

 My Thoughts

Have you read this book yet?  If your answer is no, then why not?

Thirteen Reasons Why is one of those books that you read that leaves a lasting impression on you once you are done..  I personally have recommended it to pretty much everyone who has asked me the question "do you have any recommendations for a good book to read?" in the past month and a half.  In fact, I sent my copy home with one of my assistants when she went on vacation.    This is one of those books that I wish they would make part of the regular high school curriculum.  There is so much to be learned from this book and so much relevance to a teenager's life, no matter what decade it happens to be.  I wish this book had been around when I was in high school.  It would have explained so much to not only me, but my peers as well.

Not everyone who reads this book will like it.  In fact some will hate it and some will tell you that it's not believable.  In my opinion, they are missing the point.

For me, the book wasn't so much about suicide as it was about demonstrating the consequences of of our actions.  To me, the book was about the fact that we are all connected as people and have the ability to influence each others lives, good or bad.  The book was about recognizing that what seems like it's no big deal to you and me, can mean the world to someone else.  The book at it's core, for me, is about recognizing that my actions and my words just aren't about me and that they have the ability to hurt or to  heal; enlighten or deceive.

That is the reason why I will read this book again and again and continue to recommend it to anyone who asks.