Showing posts with label young adult fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label young adult fiction. Show all posts

April 30, 2016

Jerkbait by Mia Siegert

Synopsis:

Even though they're identical, Tristan isn't close to his twin Robbie at all—until Robbie tries to kill himself.

Forced to share a room to prevent Robbie from hurting himself, the brothers begin to feel the weight of each other's lives on the ice, and off. Tristan starts seeing his twin not as a hockey star whose shadow Tristan can't escape, but a struggling gay teen terrified about coming out in the professional sports world. Robbie's future in the NHL is plagued by anxiety and the mounting pressure from their dad, coach, and scouts, while Tristan desperately fights to create his own future, not as a hockey player but a musical theatre performer.

As their season progresses and friends turn out to be enemies, Robbie finds solace in an online stranger known only as “Jimmy2416.” Between keeping Robbie's secret and saving him from taking his life, Tristan is given the final call: sacrifice his dream for a brother he barely knows, or pursue his own path. How far is Robbie willing to go—and more importantly, how far is Tristan willing to go to help him?

For starters, I was offered an ARC of this book and I was thrilled. Being a huge hockey fan, there is no way I could turn down a new YA book that features a LGBTQ hockey player. So here I am having finished this book and am bringing you my thoughts on it.

This book was real. It handled a lot of deep topics, but it didn’t drone on and somehow kept the mood someone light. Some parts of it were hard to read because of the harsh reality of it. A lot of kids have to go through life feeling like Robbie, and it isn’t fair. It was also interesting how this book dove into bullying and how friends may not be all that they seem when things are going well. 

The relationship between the twins is an interesting one. They aren’t close, but they are at the same time. Maybe they are just close from being related at the beginning, but it continues to grow from there. It was really nice to watch how their relationship progressed.

The story line with Jimmy was kind of cheesy and reminded me of YA books that would come out when the internet became a popular thing for kids and teenagers, but that’s okay. It is easy to look past that with the rest of the book.

There was a lot of character development, but I also feel like the book could have been stretched out a bit more and they could have gone deeper. Maybe hear a first person account from Robbie.

Jerkbait is an addicting read. My total read time on it was probably around 3 hours. I couldn’t put it down once I started it outside of having to sleep. Honestly, I need a sequel. If you make it to the end of this book, you will know why. So many things I need to know.

5/5 Stars

Memorable Quotes: "High school was a time for everyone to be miserable"

"But it wasn't like that in real life. Best friends never fell in love. Couples who were best friends only became best friends after they got together." 


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January 29, 2016

Hit and Run by Lurlene McDaniel

Synopsis:
If no one meant for it to happen, should someone be guilty? Analise: She knows the roads and feels secure riding her bike. Laurie: When asked out by Quin, Laurie is happy. Then his car hits something. Later, Laurie realizes there is a way to get Quin to date her. Quin: Because Quin is athletically gifted, his father expects him to get a scholarship. Nothing is to get in his way of college, athletics, money, and success. When he realizes what has happened, he decides he must not let it ruin his future. Jeremy: It's been the perfect relationship with Analise. Little does Jeremy realize that the beautiful wood he carves will be used for something for Analise. As the lives of people who never wanted to hurt others intersect, harsh realities of choices that cannot be changed are explored.
This book was a random pickup while I was at a discount book store. I had no expectations going into it. I picked it up for $2 and it looked somewhat interesting.

The good news: it was only $2. The bad news, for the author & publisher I guess, that is all that I would ever spend on this book.

Let me say this – It was not a bad book. I didn’t hate it.

BUT.

It was just very typical. It was a very average young adult novel that has been done multiple times. It was basically a lesser version of If I Stay with a few tweaks to the story line.

The random high school popularity storyline annoyed me and kind of made me want to throw my book at the wall. SPOILER ALERT: withholding the truth about the accident so this girl could get a boyfriend that she didn’t even like was so dumb. Pro-tip: don’t do that.

If you find this book discounted somewhere and have nothing else to read, you may not hate it. Otherwise, don’t even bother. Read If I Stay instead.

2/5 Stars


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January 27, 2016

Cut by Patricia McCormick

Synopsis:
Callie cuts herself. Never too deep, never enough to die. But enough to feel the pain. Enough to feel the scream inside.

Now she's at Sea Pines, a "residential treatment facility" filled with girls struggling with problems of their own. Callie doesn't want to have anything to do with them. She doesn't want to have anything to do with anyone. She won't even speak.

But Callie can only stay silent for so long...
This book has been out for awhile. I remember always seeing it on shelves when I was at various bookstores, but I never picked it up. I’m sure pretty much everyone has read this except for me, but I finally caught up to the bandwagon.

That said, it wasn’t anything like I thought it would be. Except, I don’t really know what exactly I was expecting. With Callie not talking for a lot of the book, I figured that something really terrible had happened to her that was going to come out later in the book. I found myself waiting and waiting, and that HUGE reveal never came. Maybe it was the way is was written and not her actions themselves that made me expect something like that.

I guess that maybe it ended like up that because it is sort of accurate for some mental health cases though. Nothing huge has to happen in order to cause a mental health episode. It could be something small, or have no external trigger at all.

That is why I am leaning more towards the way this story was written leading me to think that something super catastrophic had occurred.

Overall, though, I did enjoy the book. It was a bit different because it was separated only into 3 parts instead of multiple chapters. It is a pretty short book, so I can see why that was the case.
Im starting to think this review isn’t helpful at all, but this book just sort of threw me off. . .

3/5 stars.


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