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REVIEW: Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard

Posted by Anastasia on March 5, 2012 4 Responses »

Mar 052012

021. Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard
Publication: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (March 13, 2012), eARC, 352pp / ISBN 0385739370
Genre: YA Contemporary Fiction

Read: January 29, 2012
Source: NetGalley

Summary from Amazon:

It all begins with a stupid question:

Are you a Global Vagabond?

No, but 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be. In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America–the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path.

Bria’s a good girl trying to go bad. Rowan’s a bad boy trying to stay good. As they travel across a panorama of Mayan villages, remote Belizean islands, and hostels plagued with jungle beasties, they discover what they’ve got in common: both seek to leave behind the old versions of themselves. And the secret to escaping the past, Rowan’s found, is to keep moving forward.

But Bria comes to realize she can’t run forever, no matter what Rowan says. If she ever wants the courage to fall for someone worthwhile, she has to start looking back.

Review

I have a deep fondness for books that force teenagers to travel to places they might not have wanted to go to and that, in turn, force them to grow up into better people than they were at the beginning of the book/journey. This is why I had such high hopes for 13 Little Blue Envelopes, and why I had such high hopes for Wanderlove! Luckily Wanderlove does what I wanted 13 Little Blue Envelopes to do, and it does is in a completely amazing way that, if I had a physical copy of this book, would make me cuddle it to my chest for about a week. That’s how happy this book makes me. Continue reading »

MINI-REVIEWS: Who What Wear, Goy Crazy, My Lunatic Life

Posted by Anastasia on February 29, 2012 No Responses »

Feb 292012

037. Who What Wear: The Allegra Biscotti Collection by Olivia Bennett
Publication: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (November 1, 2010), ebook, 258pp / ISBN 140224391X
Genre: MG Fiction

Read: February 25, 2012
Source: Freebie

Mini-Review

I wasn’t sure if I’d like this book at first, because the first chapter is kind of boring. But! It gets better, and by the end I thought it was really cute. Fashion is always a tricky subject to write about because it changes so rapidly, but Who What Wear was still current enough to not be completely distracting. Emma, the protagonist, reminds me of all those adorable teenage bloggers/fashion designers who have big dreams and aren’t afraid to make them happen, and since I know of a few teenage bloggers who’ve actually made some of those dreams happen I didn’t think the plot was all that implausible, either. And like I said: it’s just darned cute. Continue reading »

MINI-REVIEWS: Dust, My Fair Godmother, Wish

Posted by Anastasia on February 28, 2012 8 Responses »

Feb 282012

034. Dust by Arthur Slade
Publication: Dava Enterprises (February 5, 2011), originally published 2003, ebook, 192pp / ISBN 0385730047
Genre: MG Horror, Historical Fiction

Read: February 19-20, 2012
Source: Bought

Mini-Review

This was way scarier than I thought it’d be for some reason. It reminds me somewhat of The Boneshaker and how that was scary, how it deals with the power adults have over children physically, emotionally, and so on. I liked the writing in Dust a lot more than I did in The Hunchback Assignments, my first Arthur Slade book, and I liked the story more, too. It’s less of an action, kick-ass, “kid saves the world” kind of a book and more of a magical realism/”weird things happen in small towns” book, which I liked. Plus! There’s stuff about the importance of imagination and reading and thinking outside of the box! Defeating baddies through the power of your mind? Awesome! I love that, especially when it’s in a “boy” book. They don’t seem to get that sort of thing a lot in their books, to be honest. Continue reading »

MINI-REVIEWS: Shades of Simon Gray, The Wander Year, Flawless

Posted by Anastasia on February 14, 2012 No Responses »

Feb 142012

026. Shades of Simon Gray by Joyce McDonald
Publication: Laurel Leaf (May 13, 2003), Paperback, 272pp / ISBN 0440228042
Genre: YA Fiction (magical realism?)

Read: February 4-5, 2012
Source: Bought (UBS)

Mini-Review

I tend to buy books based on whether I like the cover or not, which sometimes bites me in the butt. I bought Shades of Simon Gray because I liked the cover, and my butt was only a little bit bitten. Shades of Simon Gray reminds me of a Lois Duncan novel, only with a little less thriller and a little more “growing up and finding out what sort of person you are.” With some magical realism/time travel/ghost things thrown in. I liked that the characters all had different reactions to the events in the book– some of them decided to do the right thing, to take responsibility for the bad thing(s) they’ve done (without actually telling anyone they were the ones who did the bad thing(s)) and to try to make up for it, while others thought they hadn’t done anything wrong at all. It was a nice spectrum of realistic reactions and personalities and whatever, and I liked it. The added touch of spooky atmosphere, weird biblical plagues, and ghosts just made reading it even more fun.

A book with similar themes (minus the magical realism) would be Nothing But the Truth by Avi, if that helps any. Continue reading »

REVIEW: The Unidentified by Rae Mariz

Posted by Anastasia on February 8, 2012 2 Responses »

Feb 082012

024. The Unidentified by Rae Mariz
Publication: Balzer + Bray (October 5, 2010), ebook, 308pp / ISBN 0061802085
Genre: YA Fiction (dystopic?)

Read: February 1, 2012
Source: Bought

Summary from Amazon:

Fifteen-year-old Katey (aka Kid) goes to school in the Game—a mall converted into a “school” run by corporate sponsors. As the students play their way through the levels, they are also creating products and being used for market research by the sponsors, who are watching them 24/7 on video cameras.

Kid has a vague sense of unease but doesn’t question this existence until one day she witnesses a shocking anticorporate prank. She follows the clues to uncover the identities of the people behind it and discovers an anonymous group that calls itself the Unidentified. Intrigued by their counterculture ideas and enigmatic leader, Kid is drawn into the group. But when the Unidentified’s pranks and even Kid’s own identity are co-opted by the sponsors, Kid decides to do something bigger—something that could change the Game forever.

Review

I love dystopian fiction, but sometimes I get really tired of post-apocalyptic dystopias. Futuristic dystopias, of the kind where the society is still fully functioning and alive and whatnot, are one of my favorite kinds of non-apocalyptic dystopias. Think Feed or Uglies (although I suppose technically that’s a post-apocalyptic society which has become stable again) or even Inside Out. The Unidentified is somewhere along those lines: it’s a futuristic world built on some of the lines that American society is currently traveling on with an emphasis on the negative over the good. So, basically, it’s what might happen if our obsession with reality TV, consumerism, fame/celebrity, plus the government/ad corporations’ obsession with monitoring people, are ramped up to 11. Continue reading »

MINI-REVIEWS: Boy Meets Girl, The Wizard, the Witch and Two Girls from Jersey, Stupid Fast

Posted by Anastasia on February 7, 2012 4 Responses »

Feb 072012

020. Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot
Publication: Harpercollins (January 1, 2004), Paperback, 383pp / ISBN 0060085452
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Read: January 27-29, 2012
Source: Bought

Mini-Review

Sometimes you just want to read something fluffy and silly and easy on the brain, and Meg Cabot’s books are really good for that. I haven’t read many of her adult books, but I think they’re basically like her teen books, only with older characters who have slightly different goals (starting families rather than making prom queen, for instance). Boy Meets Girl is adorable, with adorable characters and an adorable plotline. And as a bonus, it’s written in an interesting way: through emails and phone calls and IMs instead of straight narrative stuff. Continue reading »

MINI-REVIEWS: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Vesper, Dramarama

Posted by Anastasia on February 3, 2012 No Responses »

Feb 032012

017. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
Publication: Dell Books for Young Readers (April 26, 2005), Paperback, 352pp / ISBN 0553494791
Genre: YA Fiction

Read: January 26-27, 2012
Source: Bought

Mini-Review

I’ve been meaning to read this book for forever, mainly because it’s one of those generation-defining books that’re so important. I’ve seen bits of the movie and I know vaguely what it/the book is about, so I was expecting something cute and touching and possibly melodramatic. There’s actually not that much melodrama in it, but it IS cute and touching. And kind of boring, to be honest. Continue reading »