Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz

Genre: YA fantasy
Pages: 288 (paperback)
Published: 2013 by Simon Pulse


Synopsis:
Be careful what you believe in...Rudy’s life is flipped upside-down when his family moves to a remote island in a last attempt to save his sick younger brother. With nothing to do but worry, Rudy sinks deeper and deeper into loneliness and lies awake at night listening to the screams of the ocean beneath his family’s rickety house.

Then he meets Diana, who makes him wonder what he even knows about love, and Teeth, who makes him question what he knows about anything. Rudy can’t remember the last time he felt so connected to someone, but being friends with Teeth is more than a little bit complicated. He soon learns that Teeth has terrible secrets. Violent secrets. Secrets that will force Rudy to choose between his own happiness and his brother’s life.

Review:

Seeing as I had heard Teeth blurbed as both "another edgy teen contemp" and as a story about "gay magic fish", it's a surprise that I gave this book a try-- but in this case, taking a chance on a new author and an unknown story definitely payed off.  Hannah Moskowitz has a "bare bones" writing style which really captures a reader's attention and, in the case of Teeth, makes the story so much more raw and real.  This book defies genre trends, with a few elements of the ever-popular mermaid paranormal romance (ie boy meets girl; boy meets fish), a few from the "edgy" teen novel, some from the modern fairy tale novels like those by Holly Black, and some which are all its own.

Our MC Rudy was a typical enough teenage boy before his family moved to an island with a tiny population, an island whose local fish are rumored to make whoever eats them healthy, even to ward off terminal diseases like the one Rudy's little brother suffers from.  Rudy meets beautiful Diana, who is the only other teenager on the island: she grew up on the isolated island and learned most everything she knows from books.  And then he meets the boy who calls himself Teeth: a boy with a fish tail and a scaly upper body who lives near the island's docks.  Teeth insists he is more fish than human, but as Rudy discovers as he begins to get to know Teeth and his murky origins, Teeth is more human and more vulnerable than he would ever admit.

Teeth is a simply told story, part-contemporary and part-fairy tale, with simple, powerful themes.  However, its complex and beautifully realized characters mean that you will likely be thinking about this short novel long after you finish reading it.  What has stayed with me most strongly are the characters of Rudy and Teeth, the strength and uncertainty of their friendship, and the ending-- which was not, as I definitely feared it was going to be while reading the book, tragic.  I really loved this amazingly original novel and really recommend that anyone just try reading it with no expectations or prejudices, because Teeth defies both.

Rating:

Shine by Lauren Myracle

Genre: YA contemporary
Pages: 350 (hardcover)
Published: May 2011 by Amulet Books
 Recommended for: everyone who doesn't mind sensitive topics-- highly recommended

My Take:

Shine is an unforgettable novel indeed.  The story unfolds in Black Creek, a clandestine and drug-ridden small town in the mountains of North Carolina-- very close to home for me.  Cat has slowly retreated from her community... even from her best friend since before she could walk-- Patrick.  Patrick who, like Cat, was determined to be a survivor of the hopeless void of their hometown.  Patrick who was found beaten and strung to a gas station pump with homophobic words of hate carved into his chest.

Now Patrick is in a coma, and doctors wonder if he will ever emerge from it the way he once was.  Cat returns from her long self-imposed exile to hunt down the perpetrator-- because though the local sheriff thinks out-of-towners are responsible for the vicious gay-hate crime, Cat doesn't believe it for a second.  She searches the ranks of her one-time friends, digging deep into the darkness of the crooked little town for clues as to who did this to Patrick and why.  What she finds I doubt anyone could predict ahead of time.

Though this book is a mystery, it's a subtle one.  Myracle masterfully focuses in on all the gritty secrets and details of Cat's town-- its more unsavory inhabitants as well as its more admirable ones-- and still she manages to show us the brightness shining through everything, even the horrible events which unfolded prior to the story's opening.  I'd never heard the quote at the beginning of the book before: 'You are the light of the world.'  But I think it fits the novel perfectly, as does the cover with its intriguing mixture of light and darkness.  This is one you will be likely be thinking of long after you turn the final page.  A highly atmospheric chiaroscuro of small and epic proportions alike, I highly recommend Shine.

Cover: 5/5

Premise: 4/5

Characters: 5/5

Plot: 5/5

Overall Rating: 5/5

Huntress by Malinda Lo

Genre: YA fantasy
Pages: 384 (hardcover)
Published: April 2010 by Little, Brown
Recommended for: fans of Ash and those seeking action-packed fantasy

Synopsis:

Nature is out of balance in the human world. The sun hasn't shone in years, and crops are failing. Worse yet, strange and hostile creatures have begun to appear. The people's survival hangs in the balance.
To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a sage, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. And yet the two girls' destinies are drawn together during the mission. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one huntress to save it, and what it takes could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.
The exciting adventure prequel to Malinda Lo's highly acclaimed novel Ash is overflowing with lush Chinese influences and details inspired by the I Ching, and is filled with action and romance.


My Take: 

Malinda Lo's Ash is one of my all-time favorite books, so of course I was eager to get my hands on her second novel, set in the same world as Ash.  Huntress also has Chinese influences and involves the Fae, and has something of a medieval setting, though we get the impression it takes place some time before Ash and is more of a companion novel than a prequel.  Malinda Lo's writing is beautiful and luscious as always-- few authors can measure up to her gorgeous use of the English language, nor her compelling characters.

Kaede and Taisin are two very different girls, and it's clear from the beginning that they're destined to be together: they shine much brighter together than apart.  They sort of balance each other-- like Yin and Yang, to use a metaphor from the book's I Ching-esque influences.  Taisin was born a poor farmer's daughter, but for years she's trained to be a Sage: skilled in magic, peaceful, and completely celibate-- which could be a problem, considering her immediate and powerful attraction to Kaede.  Taisin, who has visions, experiences a powerful one of Kaede-- who she hardly knows-- rowing away from a silver beach towards a brilliant sparkling castle on a distant island.  Taisin is wary of her feelings towards Kaede from the start, seeing as she knows Kaede will leave her and that they cannot possibly be together, anyway, due to Taisin's desire to become a Sage.  Where Taisin is withdrawn, Kaede is open and down-to-earth, especially considering she's actually the daughter of an important adviser to the King.  She was my favorite of the girls: so strong while still being emotional, so far from heartless despite the very difficult decisions she has to make during her journey. 

As in Ash, we don't get to see as much of the Fae as I would've liked, but what we do see is intriguing, eerie, beautiful... more than a little sinister.  Malinda Lo writes faeries fantastically-- I much prefer hers to the kinder, flowery faeries in YA books like Wings or The Faerie Path.  The romance and the threat of the Fae is suspenseful and compelling, and there are a few great subplots, too: I liked the little bit of romance between Prince Con, who accompanies the girls on their diplomatic journey to the Faerie Queen's city, and the female guard, Shae.  My one complaint is the third-person omniscient point of view... it constantly skips around from one person's head to another, which got to be pretty annoying.  I would have preferred the chapters to alternate between Kaede and Taisin's POVs, since most of the time we were in their heads, anyway.  Overall, awesome read-- really enjoyable, with a great storyline and lovable characters.   I can't wait to see what Malinda Lo comes up with next!

Cover: 5/5 

Premise: 5/5

Characters: 5/5

Plot: 4/5

Overall Rating: 5/5

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green+ David Levithan

Genre: YA contemporary

Pages: 310 (hardcover)

Published: 2010 by Dutton

Recommended for: those who enjoyed John Green's other books-- Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, etc

Synopsis:

It’s not that far from Evanston to Naperville, but Chicago suburbanites Will Grayson and Will Grayson might as well live on different planets. When fate delivers them both to the same surprising crossroads, the Will Graysons find their lives overlapping and hurtling in new and unexpected directions. With a push from friends new and old — including the massive, and massively fabulous, Tiny Cooper, offensive lineman and musical theater auteur extraordinaire — Will and Will begin building toward respective romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most awesome high school musical.

My Take: 

I really wanted to love Will Grayson^2.  I'm going to call it that, "Will Grayson to the power of two" since there's no way I'm typing the name twice every time I mention the title.  

Anyway, John Green is one of my favorite Youtube gurus, and I also really enjoyed his most awesome book Looking for Alaska.  I've never read anything by David Levithan, but I do know that the two authors collaborated on Will Grayson^2 like this: John Green wrote a chapter from one Will's point of view, then Levithan wrote one from the other Will's, and the entire book alternated like that.  One thing that drove my OCD crazy was that the fact that the second Will Grayson-- I'll call him 'Emo Will'-- 's chapters were written without capitalized letters at the beginning of sentences, and there were no quotation marks, etc.  I'm sure most people wouldn't mind at all, but it drove me crazy. (-er.)  John Green wrote from the first person POV of the Will I'll call 'OWG' (other Will Grayson), because that's what Emo Will calls him.  There was nothing especially special about OWG-- he was an ordinary guy, a pretty nice guy who's maybe-maybe-not crushing on a girl named Jane, a guy mostly keeps his mouth shut and tries not to draw too much attention to himself under any circumstances.  This proves very difficult for OWG, given that his best friend is Tiny Cooper.  

My favorite line from the book, without a doubt, is on the first page: 'Tiny Cooper is not the world's gayest person, and he is not the world's largest person, but I believe he may be the world's largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world's gayest person who is really, really large.'  I cracked up immediately, and that's when I knew that this was going to be one funny book.  There's a joke or two on every page-- especially in OWG's chapters-- and about 60% of them are pretty funny. (A couple fall flat.)  There's also about a half dozen swear words on every page, but I got used to it pretty quickly.  Tiny Cooper can be downright hilarious at times, though I did think he was a little bit of a stereotype gay guy: flirty and kind of nosy, loud.  I did like his character, though, more than either of the Will Graysons.  

The plot is that Tiny wants to stage a musical at his and OWG's high school, a musical about his life and many failed romantic relationships and ex-boyfriends.  There are more than a few obstacles to him staging this play, but not as many as there would be in real life, if you know what I mean.  I mean, if somebody at my high school (which is admittedly located in the Southern US) tried to put on a play where the leading character was openly gay, I think there would be riots and all kinds of horrible reactions.  But I guess everybody's just keeping it real and is totally accepting in Will Grayson^2's Chicago-land.  This book should probably be called Tiny Cooper^2, realistically, though I realize the irony is missing with that title. ;)  But there's twice as much Tiny Cooper in the story as there is OWG and Emo Will.  

Emo Will, by the way, I have so named because well, he's pretty darn emo.  He's severely depressed and it's hard not to sympathize with him over that, but Emo Will very quickly grated on my nerves.  He has a friend named Maura who really likes him (even though Emo Will's actually gay, he hasn't told her about that or the fact that he's been exchanging instant messages with a mysterious guy named Isaac for a long time now.)  Emo Will is such an *ss to Maura, though we find out she's not exactly a saint, either.  I think the overall problem with me and this book was that there was no one character I immediately connected with-- they were all sort of okay, but I didn't really fall in love with anyone.  The ending is also not so impressive... seemed like a big let-down after 300 pages.  The best thing about this book is the humor-- it is truly hilarious at times.  I realize that has probably been a thoroughly confusing review, what with the two Wills and my ramblings, so kudos and thanks to you if you stuck it out! 

Cover: 4/5
Premise: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 3/5
Overall Rating: 3/5

Gemini Bites by Patrick Ryan

Genre: YA contemporary/ romance/ LGBT

Pages: 240 (hardcover)

Published: March 2011 by Scholastic

Recommended for: anyone who thinks a funny coming-of-age-type romance (of both straight and gay varieties) sounds like their thing

Summary:

One of the strangest (and funniest) love triangles ever to hit YA fiction, when a pair of twins (one boy, one girl) both fall for the boy who moves in with them…who may or may not be a vampire.
Judy and Kyle Renneker are sixteen-year-old fraternal twins in a rambling family of nine. They have a prickly history with each other and are, at least from Judy's perspective, constantly in fierce competition. Kyle has recently come out of the closet to his family and feels he might never know what it's like to date a guy. Judy, who has a history of pretending to be something she isn't in order to get what she wants, is pretending to be born-again in order to land a boyfriend who heads his own bible study.

When their parents announce that the family is going to be taking in a fellow student for a month so that he can finish the school year before moving away, both Kyle and Judy can't help but sit up and take notice. Garret Johnson, who is taking temporary residence in the newly finished attic, is a young man who moved into town less than a year ago and who is a mysterious, goth loner . . . and claims to be a vampire. He's not an easy person to get to know by any means, but the twins find him (to varying degrees) both strange and alluring.

My Take:

DISCLAIMER: Gemini Bites is NOT a paranormal romance.  The token description seems to be: a teenage vampire moves in with a set of dysfunctional twins and a love triangle ensues.  In actuality, readers will find admittedly few sparkling vampires within these pages.  But the book more than makes up for its somewhat misleading synopsis with a slew of hilarious one-liners and lovable characters.  The love triangle (er, love quadrilateral) is as funny as it is somewhat bizarre, and the sheer randomness of the goings-on in Gemini Bites kept me hooked from the first page to the last.    

Garret Johnson, the alleged vampire who moves into twins Kyle and Judys' attic, is a very interesting enigmatic stranger, as we can gather immediately from his initial introduction of himself: 'The name's Garret.  As opposed to garrote, the device one might use to strangle a person.'  Yeah.  And he just gets delightfully weirder from then on out.  Though Kyle initially worries that Garret might want to suck his blood some night and Judy is very preoccupied with snagging her newest crush by pretending to be a devout Christian (it's kind of a long story), both of the twins begin to develop romantic interest in Garret, who is as charming as he is maddeningly evasive about his own past.  We're purposely left in the dark about whether Garret's gay or straight, and the twins-- who are constantly in competition-- battle it out, each vying for the attention of their eccentric new house-mate. 

The novel switches points of view every chapter, letting us into both Judy and Kyle's heads.  I have to say I liked Kyle's chapters much better, mainly because Judy is incredibly conniving and often cruel, always lying to get her way, even though she's justified in her own mind.  Kyle is the opposite: self-demeaning and hilarious and obsessed with the music of Bob Dylan. (Go figure.)  Judy's best friend Sasha, a lovable 'dumb brunette' was by far the best secondary character, but it was also impossible for me not to snort with laughter when reading about Coover, Kyle's classmate who started the rumors of Garret's vampiric nature in the first place and decides to make a step toward ridding the world of evil, Mr. Pointy-style.  (Five points to your house if you got the Buffy reference.)

This book is laugh-out-loud hilarious and I loved how it handled LGBT: Kyle's family is so okay with his being gay (with nine in the family, they could barely give his coming out the time of day), and he certainly isn't the stereotypical sassy-gay-friend who we sometimes see in YA books.  All the characters and the storylines (weird as they sound in summary) are very believable, and the happy ending ties up every possible end of this darn good yarn.  My one complaint is that hardcover Gemini Bites costs about 18 US dollars in chain stores and $14 on Amazon.  On Amazon?!  This is a skinny, 240 page book and I read it in one sitting.  Considering you can buy books three times that size for a few dollars less online, I think that is nothing short of ridiculous.  But I'm no expert on pricing (though I am an expert on book-buying ;).  What do you guys think?

Cover: 3/5

Premise: 5/5

Characters: 5/5

Plot: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4/5 
*Thanks to Good Golly Miss Holly ARC Tours for the review copy* 

Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez

Genre: YA contemporary romance, LGBT
To Be Published: April 2011 by Simon and Schuster
Pages: 224 (hardcover)
Recommended for: readers maybe 15 and up, teenage and adult
Synopsis:
Lance has always known he was gay, but he's never had a real boyfriend. Sergio is bisexual, but his only real relationship was with a girl. When the two of them meet, they have an instant connection--but will it be enough to overcome their differences? Allie's been in a relationship with a guy for the last two years--but when she meets Kimiko, she can't get her out of her mind. Does this mean she's lesbian? Does it mean she's bi? Kimiko, falling hard for Allie, and finding it impossible to believe that a gorgeous girl like Allie would be into her, is willing to stick around and help Allie figure it out.
Boyfriends with Girlfriends is Alex Sanchez at his best, writing with a sensitive hand to portray four very real teens striving to find their places in the world--and with each other.
My Take:

Officially the most fun book I've read in a long, long time.  Not only are the characters are endearing, the friendships and romances sweet, and the 224 pages nowhere near enough-- Boyfriends with Girlfriends is just the kind of book that makes you smile.  There are so many one-liners which, besides being funny, speak volumes of the characters' awkwardness and uncertainty.  Gay, straight, bi, whatever-- this is a short contemporary novel of teenage love and 'maybe-love' which anyone 16 to 100 can enjoy.

The story is told from four different alternating, third-person points of view.  It stars two pairs of friends: sensitive and easygoing gay guy Lance and his best friend, sweet, straight, beautiful Allie; confident and funny Sergio, who's bisexual, and his best friend Kimiko, a Japanese girl whose traditional family and 'Tiger' mother can't seem to accept that she's lesbian.  The guys hit it off immediately and bring their respective female friends along to their first date at a restaurant.  Allie, far from being the stereotypical, out-of-your-league preppy girl Kimiko first takes her for, turns out to be a total Japan-phile and Otaku, and the girls hit off as well, becoming great friends very quickly.  I loved the girls' different references to manga and anime (being a bit of an Otaku nerd myself), and the way their friendship progresses from happy chatter and texting to the beginnings of a romance.  Meanwhile Lance, doubts that Sergio is truly bisexual.  (The whole on-one-side-of-the-fence-or-the-other theory.)  The conflict eventually tears a rift in their fresh relationship, but I'll leave you with no doubt-- this book has a happy ending.

The story is very dialogue-driven, and that's fine, because the dialogue is great and feels absolutely natural.  The characters' complexities and depth make them seem like flesh and blood, and I absolutely can't wait to check out some of Alex Sanchez's other books.  I have to say my favorite character was Kimiko, but Boyfriends with Girlfriends is one of those rare novels where there is no weak link in the storytelling-- I loved all four characters' POVs, and would love nothing better than to see a sequel out sometime soon.  (Well, not too soon, considering the book won't be released until April.)  Anyway, definitely mark this one down on your ever-expanding to-be-released list!

Cover: 5/5 

Premise: 5/5 

Characters: 5/5 

Plot: 4/5 

Overall Rating: 5/5

Review: Ash by Malindo Lo

Genre: YA fantasy, LGBT
Page Count: 264 (paperback)
Published: 2009 by Little, Brown


Cinderella retold
Synopsis: In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.
Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief. 


My Take: 


I read a lot of very mixed reviews of Ash before ever picking it up.  I really do think it is just one of those books that some readers adore right away, and some readers really just don't.  

That said, I absolutely loved it.  Malinda Lo's beautiful, flowing writing captivated me right from the start in this bittersweet story about a girl who has lost everything and finds her only escape in fairy tales... until one day, a very real person helps her begin to believe in truth again.  Ash has the feel of a fairy tale-- that distant, slightly dream-like quality that I remember from the Grimm and Anderson stories.  The book parallels and retells Cinderella-- but it's Cinderella as you've never read it before. (Sans the singing mice, luckily.  ;)  

In Malinda Lo's version, 'Cinderella' is a dreamy girl called Ash who is forced to move to the city with her cruel stepmother and sisters from the superstitious town in the country where she once lived happily with her deceased parents.  There is indeed a Prince Charming, but he never gets his hands on any of Ash's slippers, and her 'fairy godmother' benefactor is the darkly beautiful faerie, Sidhean, who has been cursed to love her since she was a child.        


Just as Ash is ready to let Sidhean spirit her away into his world-- the world of her childhood dreams-- forever, as his bride, she meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress.  We never find out quite as much about Kaisa as I would've liked, but she is an enigmatic young woman-- kind to Ash, and strangely tender-hearted despite her occupation of hunting and tracking animals through the forest.  Ash slowly and very subtly realizes that she is falling in love with Kaisa, despite her promise to Sidhean that she will stay with him in his world forever, abandoning her tragic mortal existence.  Ash is a lesbian love story in the softest sense-- sweet and powerful, the kind of book that you will remember fondly despite its tragic beginning.


My Rating: 5/5